The Business Car Files Hyundai H
Above: Tim White, head of fleet, Hyundai.
Below: Kona Electric was one of Hyundai’s greatest achievements during the pandemic, White notes.
yundai is a company in good form right now. Its model range has won widespread plaudits in recent times for cars as diverse as the Ioniq 5 EV, the Tucson family SUV, and the i20N hot hatchback, while in the business car market it achieved the fastest UK true fleet sales growth in 2021. Speaking to Tim White, the company’s head of fleet in the UK, he tells us that last year’s performance was no overnight success, but rather the result of hard work done to lay the foundations for growth a year earlier. He says: “What we did through 2020, when others were perhaps less active, was embark on a specific true fleet strategy to grow our database and reach out to that market. “We found that our focused strategy, along with all the products that were starting to come through – which were clearly appealing to the fleet market – led to us being added to a number of fleet policies at that time when they perhaps couldn’t get the product they needed from the more established fleet OEMs.
“So, we had a huge year of activity in 2020, and while that didn’t resonate in orders necessarily, it was all the groundwork to get onto these policies and ensure that our products were there ready. Then what happened in 2021 was you had the knock-on effect of pent-up
Tim White – head of fleet
2021 was a strong year for Hyundai in fleet, but it’s determined not to be a one-year wonder, as Sean Keywood discovers.
orders from WLTP, Brexit, and Covid, so a triple-whammy of [reasons for] fleet market extensions of cars and vehicles on hold, which then kind of exploded in 2021, when everybody said: ‘Right, we need to order our next car’. So, we were then ready and primed to pick up a healthy share of that volume, along with the fact we had the products and the stock.” From the outside, it would be easy to assume that the ultra-modern, ultra-impressive Ioniq 5 EV was the main model driving Hyundai’s fleet sales growth last year. But in fact, as White explains, it was perhaps more unsung cars in the manufacturer’s range that did much of the heavy lifting.
“The Ioniq 5 was only available from circa- August onwards, so clearly there wasn’t enough time in the year to rely on that car too heavily. When you look at our achievements, I would say it was probably the Kona Electric at the heart of that, along with a little bit of the Tucson, and also our original Ioniq in its three powertrains, because that was our first real car that caught the imagination of the fleet marketplace, and still did in 2021.
“The Kona Electric I think was in the right place at the right time to do that functional job-need role, as opposed to perhaps the sort of aspirational perk company car driver choice.”
All the above being said, it is certainly true that the Ioniq 5 is now set to play a big part in Hyundai’s fleet aspirations.
White says: “Clearly the Ioniq 5 has really taken us to another level. As of a couple of weeks ago it represented 25% of our true fleet order bank, so it’s clearly a big part. “We’ve seen huge interest on salary sacrifice schemes, where people are just saying ‘What can I have for the budget?’, and the Ioniq 5 has caught the imagination, in terms of what it is, what it looks like, and ultimately how quickly can I get it.
“We’ve got it now positioned on some end user policies very much at the higher levels, because we are seeing people come out of brands like Volkswagen and BMW and coming into that car. It’s attracting a new kind of driver to the Hyundai brand for the first time.” Since the motor industry began to really struggle with supply problems and extended lead times last year, Hyundai has generally been seen as being in a relatively strong position, and White believes this is still the case. He says: “We can still with confidence say to customers that at the moment [March 2022] there are probably three to four vehicles in our range that, if they were to order now, you could still get those vehicles this year. I think we
24 | May 2022 |
www.businesscar.co.uk
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