Photo Credit: AFP/Getty Images/Karen Bleier
If not Prada, then perhaps Hermes. Hyundai Motor has commissioned interiors from the LVMH-owned French fashion house for three of its top-of-the-line Equus sedans that will be on show at the Seoul motor show this week.
The South Korean carmaker will be hoping that the Hermes logo will be more in harness with the model, so to speak, than Prada’s was when it commissioned the Italian company to style a limited edition of 1,200 of its Genesis sedan in 2011. Hyundai sold only a third of them. (The Hermes-trimmed Equus cars won’t be for sale.)
The company has to move its brand up market. South Korea’s free trade agreements with Europe and the U.S. are bringing more competition at home from BMW, Audi and Mercedes for luxury-car sales and from Ford in mid-range vehicles. Imports have more than doubled their market share to 10% since 2010. Hyundai is having to fight to keep its share stable at 43%.
Unlike Japan’s carmakers before it, the company has decided against creating a new marque in the fashion of Toyota’s Lexus. It is sticking with Hyundai, even if it has to hitch a little help at times.
Hyundai has made tremendous advances as a carmaker in recent years. Toyota executives say that when they look in the rearview mirror, it is the two Hs, Honda and Hyundai, that they most fear catching them from behind. Yet how far the South Korean company still has to go was indicated by Brand Finance‘s recently published annual ranking of the most valuable auto brands. Hyundai came in ninth with a brand value a third of that of top-ranking Toyota.
