– By Marc Sibbald –
At the Elantra launch in February I was able to talk to Scott Grant, COO at Hyundai, about the fleet market and Hyundai’s future plans. Scott is new to Hyundai and was happy to answer my fleet specific questions.
He shared that fleet made up 25% of the 102,004 cars it sold in 2015 which is a great result and proves that the brand has a strong retail following. With approximately 75,000 vehicles going to private buyers it should provide fleet managers with some comfort on future resale values because there is strong demand.
This figure is also interesting when you consider Toyota sold 206,236 vehicles in 2015 and 58% went to business, government, not-for-profit and rental. This only leaves around 86,000 going to private buyers.
Scott highlighted the Elantra’s classic sedan shape and boot as being potential selling points to fleet buyers. He said they have had some success with the larger Sonata for this reason. Security and no direct sunlight provided an advantage over SUVs and hatchbacks for some industries.
When I raised the topic of novated leasing and it’s increasing volume he was well aware of the difficulty in trying to provide these customers a ‘VIP’ experience when multiple parties are involved.
He recongised the role the FMO played and the influence they can have on the vehicle purchase decision, and acknowledged that within some dealerships novated fell between the cracks of retail and fleet.
I got the impression this was something Hyundai was thinking about and wanted to look at novated in a different way to ensure all parties in the transaction, especially the driver, have a good experience buying a Hyundai.
