Hyundai aims to build HD45, HD65 and HD75 sales

The South Korean company launched its light duty truck range here in 2010. Sales were slow to start off with and then ground to a halt this year. Industry scorekeeper, VFACTS, reports that just two Hyundai trucks have been sold so far this year.

The Australian sales and marketing head for Hyundai trucks, Anthony Hulme, says the company has solid plans for Australia. He describes the reason behind the stalled sales. “We have been affected by a supply shortage,” Hulme explains. “Hyundai can sell everything it can build at the moment.”

Hulme says Hyundai Australia is working with its parent company in South Korea to enable more trucks to be produced for the Australian market. “We are expecting more trucks before the end of the year,” he says. “They are looking at ways to boost production.”

Most Hyundai light duty trucks produced are left-hand drive and run older, cheaper-to-produce engines with lower Euro 3 and Euro 4 emission ratings, which are sent to developing countries. The Australian and New Zealand markets are not only right-hand drive, but also require engines with a Euro 5 emission rating.

This, along with relatively low volumes, may have pushed Australia and New Zealand down the list of priorities at Hyundai. Hyundai has sold a total of 202 light duty trucks since they were introduced locally three years ago. Most of these were Euro 4 rated trucks, although some Euro 5 models were sold from 2011 onwards.

Hyundai offers three trucks in Australia, the HD45, HD65 and HD75, which are rated between 4.5 tonne and 7.5 tonne in correlation with their names. All run a 3.9-litre in-line four-cylinder turbo diesel, which can produce up to 110kW and 579Nm in the two larger capacity trucks.