Toyota Steps in Korea, Takes on Hyundai

South Korean is Hyundai's domestic market and, at the same time, the most profitable country for this particular automaker. However, Toyota is very confident that along with the official entrance into Korea, the company will challenge Hyundai and will even snatch a significant market share even from the very first years.

Toyota will begin selling several models in Korea, including Camry sedans, Camry hybrids, Prius hybrids and RAV4 sport-utility vehicles, Bloomberg reported citing an official statement released by the parent manufacturer.

For the sake of comparison, Toyota will sell the Camry equipped with a 2.5-liter gasoline unit at a price of $29,900. Hyundai is selling its Sonata model for approximately $17,900 in the domestic market. Nevertheless, Toyota still expects to sell around 500 vehicles a month in 2009 and increase its monthly figures to 700 in 2010.

Hyundai is the manufacturer seen as the number one threat for Japanese companies as the South Korean manufacturer might have the ability to challenge Toyota, Honda or Nissan with cheap yet high-quality models.

"Hyundai is awesome," Honda Motor Co. CEO Takanobu Ito was quoted as saying by The Associated Press earlier this month. "They are undoubtedly a threat because their products are cheap, and the quality is improving."

"Hyundai is the biggest threat for the Japanese automakers," Nissan's senior vice-president Shiro Nakamura told the AP in an interview when talking about Hyundai's chances to take on Japanese companies. "They have the technology, but they seem to have cheaper labour. We have to offer the equivalents of sushi, tempura and kaiseki to compete against Korean barbecue."