Hyundai Motor to offer China-made Sonata taxis in S.Korea

Hyundai Motor Co. will import Sonata taxis manufactured in China to South Korea in response to strong demand from local taxi drivers less than five months after it discontinued Sonata taxi production at home.

According to sources in the Korean auto industry on Wednesday, Korea’s largest carmaker will import new Sonata taxi models for Korean taxi drivers to be manufactured based on the facelift of the eighth-generation Sonata (DN8) from its factory in Beijing run by Beijing Hyundai Motor Co. 

The decision comes less than five months after Hyundai Motor in August discontinued the production of its last Sonata taxi model, the seventh generation (LF), from its factory in Asan, South Chungcheong Province at home, mainly due to difficulties in sourcing its parts and components.

The LF Sonata first hit the market in 2014, and the Korean car giant decided to stop selling the latest model of its popular midsize sedan, the DN8 Sonata, as taxis when it released it for the first time in 2019 as part of efforts to restore the sedan’s image with a design upgrade.

The local car industry has also been seeking to add more battery-powered taxis amid the fast migration of electrification, another reason to stop the release of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) Sonata taxis.

DEMAND REMAINS STRONG

Since the discontinuation of LF Sonata taxi production, however, taxi drivers in Korea have strongly demanded the release of a new midsize sedan taxi model.

They complain that they have no choice but to buy more expensive large-sized sedan taxis due to a lack of available LPG-powered midsize sedan taxi models in Korea.  

To ensure stable taxi supply for the Korean taxi industry, Hyundai has decided to release the eighth-generation Sonata taxi model manufactured in Beijing, sources said.  

The production of Sonata taxis in China is also expected to improve the utilization rate of its factory in Beijing, which has remained low amid its stagnant car sales in China.

Hyundai Motor had five plants in China at its peak but sold one in 2021 after its car sales in the world’s largest car market tumbled.

It is currently seeking to dispose of one more plant in China as part of its China business restructuring efforts.

Hyundai Motor is expected to unveil the specifications, price and launch date of the new Sonata taxi model soon.

But Hyundai Motor may need more time to release new Sonata taxis as the plan has met with opposition from Hyundai Motor’s labor union in Korea.

The union argues that it is against the company-union collective agreement that bans the import of cars already produced in Korea to protect local staff’s job security.   

The eighth-generation Sonata is currently produced from the factory in Asan so Sonata taxis made in China should not be allowed to enter Korea, it said.

But the company said that because the Sonata taxi models are no longer produced in Korea, importing China-made Sonata taxis is not breaking any rules.

Write to Il-Gue Kim at black0419@hankyung.com

Sookyung Seo edited this article.