'The industry's all about hybrid': Hyundai Australia boss confirms importance of new Tucson Hybrid in taking the fight to the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, joining Kona, Santa Fe and i30 sedan hybrid models to challenge market leaders

Hyundai Australia Chief Operating Officer John Kett has acknowledged the Korean brand’s reduced sales volume for internal combustion (ICE) models (about 7000 units) so far in 2024, confirming the popularity of battery electric (BEV) options across the Ioniq 5 and 6 line-ups has offset that market share decrease.

But speaking at the local launch of the updated Hyundai Tucson mid-size SUV, Mr Kett reiterated the importance of new Hybrid variants arriving.

“We came into the first half of the year knowing we’d dropped some share because we’d lost the i30 out of Korea.

“We’ve been able to offset a significant portion of that with Kona, but given the run-out of Santa Fe and Tucson we’ve had some challenges in the first half of the year,” he said.

At the end of June, Hyundai registrations were down 4.3 per cent year-on-year with Mr Kett noting sales for June 2024 was the first monthly YOY decline for Hyundai since April 2023, adding “we certainly think that’s going to happen again in July”.

Hyundai already offers hybrid variants of its i30 sedan, Kona and Santa Fe models. The arrival of a hybrid Tucson provides an opportunity for Hyundai to challenge the dominant hybrid player in the medium SUV category, the Toyota RAV4.

Hyundai Tucson Hybrid

Mr Kett said, “It’s a great chance for us to up our competitive intensity in the hybrid space and at the moment people are willing to pay the price for those vehicles. So, we’re quite buoyed by that.

“Why is Tucson so important to us? Because the second biggest segment in the market is mid-size SUV and if you don’t have a ute - and we don’t - the reality is this is the biggest segment for us to play in and it’s our centre of gravity in terms of us clawing back market share for Hyundai.

“So, we’re really bullish on [Tucson Hybrid], bullish on the hybrid specification on this vehicle and bullish in terms of where Hyundai’s heading in terms of its hybrid roll-out,” he said.

Hyundai Tucson Hybrid

Speaking more generally on Hyundai’s local new product pipeline Mr Kett added, “As we go into the second half of the year, next month i30 PDe [European-built i30] lands and we get a full refresh around our Ioniq 5, including N Line.

“We’ll launch Inster early next year. We’ll have constant portfolio upgrades which will put us in a very strong position in the electrification space.

“The second half of the year, albeit declining YOY, will still be a very strong absolute volume opportunity and we’ll be at the peak of our powers in terms of launching our new portfolio which will be led by the Tucson,” he said.