Hyundai and Kia have announced ambitious European sales targets as it aims to match well established manufacturers Ford and Renault.
The Korean group now plans to extend its dramatic growth to 1.3 million by the end of the decade.
Sales director of Hyundai Motor Europe, Ho-Sung Song, said: “We are targetting 800,000 sales a year by 2010.” Kia Europe senior vice-president Jean Charles Lievens said his company expected to hit 500,000 sales a year by 2008.
Hyundai-Kia has grown rapidly in Europe with almost 600,000 sales last year from 348,000 in 2002. Now both manufacturers are creating the foundation for a new round of growth in Europe.
The brands are setting up headquarters in Germany with Kia opening a Slovakian plant in late 2006 and Hyundai planning to expand its plant in Turkey.
