Hyundai Motor muscles into online used car market

Hyundai Motor Co. is slated to start selling certified used cars online from Oct. 24, three years after its announcement to enter the 30 trillion won ($22 billion) market in terms of annual transactions.

It will become the first South Korean carmaker to directly certify the quality of used cars and sell them under its own brands – Hyundai, Kia Corp. and Genesis – as well as those of its peers.

Its advance into the market may herald a shake-up in the sector, long dominated by smaller car dealers and regarded as a hotbed of fraud and distrust.

On Thursday, Hyundai unveiled the Hyundai-Genesis certified used car sales center during its media day event in Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province, 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

“Our business philosophy is that the person who created it takes care of it until the end,” Yoo Won-ha, vice president of Hyundai Motors’ Asia Pacific region, told reporters.

“We will go beyond used car sales and establish a transparent and fair used car trading culture by sharing information for our consumers to make rational choices,” he said.

Hyundai will sell secondhand vehicles that have traveled less than 100,000 kilometers over up to five years. They will be traded online.

Those used cars will be put on its online platform after undergoing refurbishment to nearly new car levels. Hyundai will replace their components with genuine items, repairing scratches and repainting them.

Hyundai will also allow its new car buyers to sell them back through the online platform.

Regardless of brand, Hyundai will purchase vehicles less than eight years old and with less than 120,000 km mileage.

In order to set a fair price, it has developed the AI Price Calculation Engine based on big data, and the used car information portal Hi Lab to provide customers with data such as car performance, accident history and flood damage.

“They will improve consumer confidence in the used car market and contribute to expanding the overall market size,” said a Hyundai Motor official.

Hyundai’s foray into the used car market, double the size of the new car market in value, comes after the government this year lifted the ban on big companies selling secondhand vehicles.

But the approval came with some conditions attached, such as limiting their market share, to create a level playing field.

In 2022, a total 2.39 million vehicles changed hands in the domestic secondhand car market, compared to 1.68 units sold in the new vehicle market, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

Write to Nan-Sae Bin at binthere@hankyung.com
 

Yeonhee Kim edited this article