Hyundai begins testing a subscription service in that it plans to extend to all of Spain first and then to all of Europe. This is a service in which the customer can subscribe to a car in a totally digital way, explains Polo Satrustegui, general manager of Hyundai Spain.
The service is called Mocean and Satrustegui explains that the idea of doing the pilot in Barcelona arises because in Barcelona as in Madrid, many executives and workers are passing through who are maybe six months old and who need a car to get around. They will not make a three or four-year rental or leasing contract for a long time.
Furthermore, Barcelona does not have a free-floating car-sharing service as the one Madrid has. The idea is for the customer to carry out the entire process digitally while the dealers would take care of the delivery, collection, and maintenance of the vehicles. It will be Hyundai who will take charge of the financing of the fixed assets that will mean having a wide range of vehicles at the customer’s disposal.
The contracts will be for six months at first, after that time you can change cars or leave the service, explains Satrustegui.To be shorter terms, the general director of Hyundai Spain does not believe that the new service cannibalize the conventional renting or leasing since it has contracts with three or four years of duration.
Spain Emptied
Satrustegui also explained in a meeting with the media that Hyundai will continue with its rural car-sharing program, Live. We have been expanding it because the idea is to reach as many towns as possible. We have more than thirty towns that have an electric Kona.
The system is a car-sharing different from the one that occurs in Madrid. It is an act of corporate social responsibility, our way of alleviating the effects of emptied Spain. We put the car at the disposal of the city council and we put a recharging point for them; then they manage it. At first, the service was free.
Now we are setting an affordable fee per trip, says Satrústegui. The service is managed through a mobile app that a city council-manager manages and gives and removes access depending on whether or not the neighbors make good use of the 100% electric Kona.
Dealers
Citrus tegui has insisted that all these new services are going to be carried out by the dealers. He recalled that the Korean brand’s network will close in 2020 with a profitability of 1.6%. It is very positive data if one takes into account that the national average will be below 1%. Also, if 2021 as we believe is better, we will return to returns above 2%.
Hyundai’s dealer network has 77 outlets enough for volumes up to 70,000 units. A volume that will not be reached at least until 2022, according to Satrustegui, who expects to make some 55,000 units in 2021 and reach a 5.6% market share for the 47,300 cars sold in 2020 and a 5.3% share. Dropping 25%, we fell back less than the market and we finished 2020 very well with the arrival of the Tucson, says Hyundai’s CEO.
