Hyundai Views Kia "Just Like Any Other Competitor"

Interesting insights were revealed when the two car manufacturers, which are theoretically on the same side of the Hyundai Kia Automotive Group barricade, began acting a bit like competitors. Executives from both companies recentlyshared some rather interesting insight into how the two companies view one another, especially in America.

The attitude is a bit out of place given the countless platforms the two companies share. But it looks like the staff of Hyundai views the relationship in a somewhat similar manner. As Jim Trainor, of Hyundai Motor America said they view Kia ”just like any other competitor in the automotive space,” as related by leftlanenews.com. This is somehow a unique approach to viewing a sister company, despite the fact that both Hyundai and Kia are in fact pursuing the same consumers in many instances.

If we are to look at similar business situations, for example, one will not likely find executives at General Motors’ Chevrolet and GMC divisions sharing similar sentiments, despite their obvious competition in the market. Despite the fact, Hyundai and Kia have separate marketing, distribution and design departments, they share a common research and development center in Hwaesong, South Korea, known as Namyang.

At the aforementioned center there are 8,000 workers and engineers from both Hyundai and Kia that are working side-by-side without distinction to develop new vehicles. The joint-platform production development finds necessary the overlaps and redundancies given the economies of scale benefits. This fact surfaces when product planners from otherwise separate Hyundai and Kia divisions must come together at the Hyundai-Kia common planning department before any decisions regarding the product are taken.