Hyundai Motor Co., the nation’s
largest carmaker, has decided to lower the price of its Tucson fuel cell sport
utility vehicle to compete with rising Japanese rival Toyota Motor in the
segment, industry sources said.
“Hyundai Motor recently
informed Gwangju City, a major local buyer of the Tucson FCV, of its internal
decision to cut the car price,” an industry insider close to the matter said on
condition of anonymity last week.
Gwangju
City, which purchased five Hyundai
FCVs last year, has a plan to buy 10 more Tucson FCVs this year for use during
the Gwangju Summer Universiade in July.
“Hyundai Motor made the
move, pressed by Toyota’s fast move to create a market for its first fuel cell
car Mirai, armed with bargain-price,’’ the insider said.
Toyota
debuted the FCV Mirai, a mid-size four-door sedan, at the 2014 Los Angeles Auto
Show in November with a price tag of 7.24 million yen ($62,000). The price is
almost half that of a Tucson FCV priced at 150 million won ($139,000). Both
prices exclude the government rebates.
However,
Hyundai seems to need more
time to decide how much it will reduce the price of its strategic eco-car, he
added.
“It is
a possible scenario for Hyundai
to choose a bold price-cutting option, considering a wide price gap between the
Tucson FCV and Mirai,’’ said Kim Phil-soo, an automotive engineering professor
at Daelim University.
Hyundai Motor jumpstarted the
“ultimate’’ eco-car market last February, completing the assembly line for the
mass production of its FCV for the first time in the world last February, but
the carmaker sold only 200 units mainly because of the expensive car price.
The
carmaker sold only 10 units at home last year. In Korea, the government
subsides $55,700 per Tucson FCV unit, meaning that individual Korean consumers
still have to pay $83,500 to buy Hyundai’s
hydrogen-powered car.
In
contrast, Toyota announced last Thursday that the Mirai fuel cell sedans racked
up approximately 1,500 orders in Japan, a month after sales began on Dec. 15,
2014.
The
Japanese carmaker said about 60 percent of the orders came from government
offices and corporate fleets, and 40 percent from individual consumers.
“Without
the new price policy, Hyundai
Motor in the hydrogen-powered car sector could lose its market leadership role
to Toyota,” the professor said.
Since
the launch of Mirai last November, Toyota has moved faster than expected to
create demand for the model. At the 2015 International Consumer Electronics
Show, the Japanese carmaker announced it would release its 5,680 patents
related to fuel cell technology by 2020 to become a game-changer in the sector.
Another
thing holding back sales in Korea of the Tucson FCV is the lack of hydrogen
fueling stations, which is key for creating a market environment for the car.
Korea has only around 10 stations nationwide. The Ministry of Environment,
which is in charge of building the fueling infrastructure, plans to increase
the number of stations to 200 by 2025.
Japan
is moving faster than Korea in this sector as well. According to the Japanese
government’s long-term road map for a “hydrogen society,” about 100 hydrogen
fueling stations will be installed this year in major Japanese cities.
“It is
time for Hyundai
Motor and the government to sit down together to discuss a strategic approach
toward rising completion for fuel cell cars,’’ Kim said.
Besides
Toyota, Honda Motor is planning to market its FCVs in 2015, and Nissan Motor
will follow the move in 2017.
German
car giants are jumping on the bandwagon as well. Mercedes-Benz, for instance,
has signed off on a B-class hydrogen car, which is expected to be produced in
small scale and sold in 2017.
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