"Going downmarket into low-cost SUVs may actually damage the brand in the long term," said James Chao, Asia-Pacific managing director at IHS Automotive. Hyundai said it is taking steps to defend its position against Chinese rivals. The drop in annual sales was the biggest among the top 10 automakers in China, data from IHS Automotive showed. Some industry experts warned that introducing low-end SUVs could undermine the Korean automakers' quality and brand image. Latecomers to China when they began making cars there in 2002, Hyundai and Kia rank third behind Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) and General Motors (GM.N).

Source: Standard Digital May 12, 2016 01:34 UTC