Hyundai debuts possible final Sonata, Tesla joins 1st time: Seoul auto show

Hyundai Motor Co. may consider discontinuing its steady seller Sonata sedan after the latest edition's release, the company’s chief hinted at this year’s Seoul Mobility Show packed with new cars by big names from home and abroad including Tesla Inc., a newbie to the show, which will be held from March 31 to April 9.

Hyundai Motor, South Korea’s biggest automaker, unveiled the Sonata The Edge, the latest edition of the company’s long-time best-selling midsize sedan Sonata with partial changes, for the first time to the world on the media day of the Seoul Mobility Show 2023 held at KINTEX convention and exhibition center in Gyeonggi Province on Thursday.

“I am confident about the Sonata for its unrivaled market value,” Chang Jae-hoon, chief executive officer and president of Hyundai Motor, said at the show on Thursday.

But he did not deny that the company has been considering various options about the fate of the consistently popular sedan, which has already reached its eighth generation, including its discontinuation.   

“We have to make a decision (about the Sonata) taking the current big electrification wave (in the auto industry) into account,” Chang said in response to reporters’ questions about the possible discontinuation of the Sonata following the release of the new edition, which has been rumored recently.

Chang was more straightforward about Hyundai Motor’s strategy against the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), telling reporters at the show that the company will seek to offset the anticipated fallout of the IRA with more EV fleet sales to car leasing companies until the construction of a new EV plant in the US state of Georgia.

Under the IRA guidelines, full tax credits of up to $7,500 per car will eventually only be available to EVs entirely made in the US and made with parts and raw materials sourced in the US. But EVs sold for leasing and rental cars are still eligible for tax credits regardless of their manufacturing location.

The Georgia plant is expected to start producing EVs for Hyundai Motor and its sibling Kia Corp. in 2025.

Along with Sonata The Edge, Kia’s much anticipated three-row large electric sport utility vehicle EV9 finally made a physical global debut at the show.

The EV9’s price at home is expected to be below 85 million won ($65,435) as the company is seeking to ensure at least 50% EV subsidies for the EV9, Song Ho-sung, president and CEO of Kia, said at the motor show. But it won’t be able to get the 100% subsidy available only to EVs cheaper than 57 million won, he added.

Kia will release a new EV model in China every year, starting this year with the EV5, said Song. The second-largest Korean automaker has been grappling with plunging sales in the world’s biggest car market, which has also grown to become the No. 1 global EV market.

This year’s motor event, which is Korea’s only auto show, has succeeded in luring some of the big foreign finished car makers.

Tesla has joined the Seoul Mobility Show for the first time this year. The world’s most popular EV maker will market the Model S and Model X in Korea after showcasing them at the event.

It also displays the Optimus, or Tesla Bot, which the company has vowed to sell in the next three to five years at less than $20,000 per unit.

Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Porsche are also exhibiting their concept cars at the show for the first time in Asia, underscoring the importance of Korea as a car market.

SsangYong Motor also debuted the electrified version of its midsize SUV Torres EVX but under its new KG Mobility name, changed after KG Group bought cash-strapped SsangYong Motor last year.

The company returned to the show this year for the first time in four years.

Write to Han-Shin Park and Hyung-Kyu Kim at phs@hankyung.com

Sookyung Seo edited this article.