Hyundai has grown greater than any automaker within the U.S. It isn’t accomplished

SAN FRANCISCO — Hyundai Motor Co. CEO José Muñoz smiled and nodded as a fellow government mentioned the automaker’s “mueos-ideun ganeunghada” philosophy in the course of the reveal of its new flagship Genesis GV90 SUV.

The time period means “something is feasible” in Korean. It is a mantra for the South Korean automaker that has proved to be true for the corporate’s U.S. ambitions in addition to for Muñoz himself, a Spanish-U.S. twin nationwide who’s the first non-Korean government to guide the automaker.

Hyundai has skilled fast development within the U.S. to date this decade regardless of an onslaught of geopolitical modifications and a slowing market. And it is hoping to maintain that going. The corporate is ramping up manufacturing at a new $7.6 billion plant in Georgia to proceed to seize extra gross sales and market share.

“My prime three priorities are U-S-A,” Muñoz instructed CNBC throughout an interview final week after the Genesis reveal. “USA helps us to actually make good progress, not solely in crucial market and essentially the most aggressive market on this planet, but in addition elsewhere.”

Hyundai Motor Group, which incorporates its namesake automobiles in addition to the Kia and luxurious Genesis manufacturers, has elevated its market share this decade greater than any main automaker within the U.S., in response to knowledge from Mobility International.

The group has grown its U.S. market share from 8.4% in 2020 to 11.2% via final 12 months, and its gross sales have grown 50% over that interval, making the South Korean firm the fourth best-selling automaker within the nation. Its market share is as much as 11.8% via the primary half of this 12 months, in response to auto intelligence agency Mobility International.

No different main automaker is even near such market share features, with most flat to down throughout that timeframe. Electrical car producer Tesla, at an estimated 2.1 share level enhance in market share, is the one firm even shut, in response to Mobility International.

Hyundai’s U.S. efficiency has helped it change into the third best-selling automaker globally and the second most worthwhile based mostly on working revenue, Munoz mentioned.

Hyundai Motor Group Government Chair Euisun Chung downplayed the corporate’s fast rise when talking final week to CNBC: “It is essential, however velocity would not matter. How we develop in the precise means [is what matters]. I believe that is extra essential.”

However traders have undoubtedly taken discover of the expansion, with shares of the corporate on the Korea inventory alternate up almost 250% since 2020.

Hyundai expects its development to proceed with a $26 billion funding plan via 2028 that would embrace making its new Metaplant in Georgia the most important car meeting plant within the nation.

Muñoz instructed CNBC the corporate is contemplating plans to extend the anticipated manufacturing capability on the plant from 500,000 items to between 700,000 and 800,000 items by 2028. It presently produces the all-electric Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 9 in addition to the Kia Sportage hybrid, with extra automobiles anticipated within the coming years.

The objective is for Hyundai to provide a minimum of 80% of the automobiles it sells within the U.S. domestically by the top of this decade, up from roughly 40% in 2024.

“For that goal, we have to add extra capability,” Muñoz mentioned. “We’re ramping up as quick as we are able to.”

The funding is the most important within the firm’s U.S. historical past, because it goals to extend gross sales to five.55 million automobiles globally underneath a “Daring 2030 Imaginative and prescient” plan outlined by Muñoz final 12 months on the firm’s first investor day ever held within the U.S.

The plan is an bold define to extend gross sales by roughly 35% from final 12 months to 2030. That features coming into new markets globally, with the U.S. as an anchor for continued worthwhile development.

Muñoz on Wednesday reconfirmed these plans in the course of the firm’s 2026 CEO investor day, together with a 6% focused world market share for Hyundai and Genesis.

Muñoz final week mentioned President Donald Trump’s tariffs, together with 15% on autos from South Korea, have performed a task within the firm accelerating its U.S. manufacturing plans.

“Tariffs are serving to speed up our localization plan. That is very, quite simple,” he mentioned. “The nice factor is that we had already began earlier than tariffs have been introduced. So in a means it is serving to us to speed up.”

The Georgia plant is essential for Hyundai and Kia, each of which have grown gross sales roughly 45% within the U.S. since 2020.

“This decade’s been a few model transformation, and the expansion has been phenomenal. We have actually reworked every part,” Eric Watson, Kia America vice chairman of gross sales operations, mentioned throughout an interview. “We proceed to plan to develop.”

Kia’s development plans embrace growing U.S. gross sales to 1.02 million automobiles within the U.S. by 2030, the corporate’s CEO, Ho Sung Track, mentioned earlier this 12 months. That’s anticipated to be assisted by Kia’s entry into pickup vehicles and extra succesful SUVs which might be often called “body-on-frame” automobiles.

“We predict that is an essential section to be concerned in, a physique on body car/truck,” Watson mentioned. “It’s going to be an essential piece of our development technique that we’ll stay up for asserting extra sooner or later.”

Hyundai additionally plans so as to add such automobiles, together with a midsize pickup truck. The corporate earlier this 12 months debuted a rugged idea car known as the Boulder, which might imply extra manufacturing capability within the U.S. for body-on-frame fashions.

“It is a new unexplored territory for us,” Muñoz mentioned. “We’re all the time, all the time assessing the alternatives that we have now available in the market.”

Hyundai entered the U.S. market in 1986, adopted by Kia in 1993 with cheaper choices than American shoppers might get from U.S. automakers and aiming to compete towards rising Japanese firms comparable to Toyota Motor.

Since then, Hyundai executives mentioned a number of transformations — from overhauling high quality and design to logos and supplier showrooms — have led the manufacturers to the place they’re at present as high quality worth performs.

“Each Kia and Hyundai are actually good at with the ability to supply extra within the car than the patron expects, and that they count on at that value level,” mentioned Stephanie Brinley, affiliate director of Mobility International’s AutoIntelligence. “It isn’t about being a ‘low cost automotive.’ It is simply with the ability to supply a bit bit greater than anticipated.”

Muñoz attributed Hyundai’s success to its buyer focus and its potential to shock consumers, lots of whom are new to the model, with the capabilities and options of its automobiles. He additionally mentioned the worldwide attain of Hyundai, which additionally owns metal crops and different suppliers, is paramount to its progress.

“We’ve decided that being aggressive is a key factor for the American client. So, affordability is one thing that we totally perceive and we apply,” he mentioned. “We need to supply the shopper the precise product, the precise options on the proper stage of value.”

That “proper stage” has been widening for the automaker within the U.S. It continues to promote entry-level automobiles that begin within the $20,000s for Kia and Hyundai, whereas rising the top-end gross sales for each manufacturers. Its Genesis luxurious model, in the meantime, has fashions that attain $100,000 or extra.

Hyundai on Wednesday mentioned it’s planning greater than 100 car launches and refreshes throughout Hyundai and Genesis by 2030, together with 58 in North America. It additionally will considerably enhance its electrified car choices, together with extended-range hybrids.

Genesis, which launched a decade in the past within the U.S., has seen a very fast development, to change into the fastest-selling luxurious model to 1 million gross sales globally, in response to the corporate.

Executives described its latest GV90 flagship SUV, together with a mannequin with coach doorways and rotating lounge seats, as a brand new chapter for the Genesis model, reiterating that “something is feasible.”

“From the very starting, the world took discover of Genesis,” Genesis North America Chief Working Officer Tedros Mengiste mentioned on the GV90 reveal as Muñoz nodded. “And tonight you will note mueos-ideun ganeunghada – something is feasible – come to life.”