Hyundai exec: Online sales will help with virus resurgence

DETROIT (AP) — The past five years have been rough for Hyundai in the U.S. as it scrambled to catch up with a massive shift in consumer preferences from cars to trucks and SUVs.

The South Korean auto company ran through multiple leaders as it added utility vehicles to a car-heavy lineup, but sales fell after peaking in 2016.

Early last year, Jose Munoz left Nissan to become the latest CEO of Hyundai’s operations in the Americas. Sales rose in 2019 as the new SUVs took hold. Then the coronavirus hit.

Munoz spoke to The Associated Press about Hyundai, the pandemic and the future of the auto business. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: What has it been like managing through the pandemic and how has Hyundai weathered it?

A: One thing I’ve learned is the better you are doing in your business before you get into trouble, the better you’re going to navigate. We were doing really, really well in the market the last few months, last year and January and February. And this put us in a very good place to navigate. We immediately created a crisis team. We took advantage of the great know how of our headquarters. South Korea has been probably the country which managed best. Then we launched a number of actions, the Hyundai Assurance job loss protection program. We also implemented an extended warranty.

Q: The number of cases is growing, especially in Southern and Western states. Are you worried that we might have to go back to restrictions?

A: Nobody wants to go through that. That would mean monitoring every single day. We worked very diligently to ensure that dealers were in a position to sell digitally. If this situation gets back to what it was, and then we need to shut down the dealers, we will continue to operate with digital procedures.

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