Hyundai Motor: Asian Crisis Through Global Recession, 1997–2010

“Hyundai Motor: Asian Crisis through Global Recession, 1997–2010,” moves forward from Volume 1, Chapter 7 and chronicles Hyundai Motor Company’s (HMC) development between 1997 and 2010. It begins with a section that provides the reader with some background on the automaker’s rise to prominence prior to 1997. Next, complimenting Chapter 7, it briefly reviews HMC’s travails during the 1997–1998 Asian Financial Crisis, a period that culminated with its absorption of Kia Motors on December 1, 1998. The chapter then discusses HMC’s rapid rebound after the crisis through 2004. During this period, it would integrate Kia’s model lineup and its Hyundai Precision Industries (HPI) division into the Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group. In the process, HMC would reclassify HPI’s SUV plant as HMC Ulsan Plant #5 and cancel its own planned 500,000-capacity Yulchon assembly complex. Thereafter, the chapter details HMC’s amazing success during the 2000s, when the automaker captured profits of more than $1 billion annually in every year from 2002 to 2010. During this period, HMC also significantly expanded its international operations. This began with a gradual ramping of its car plants in Turkey (1997) and India (1998), followed by the construction of vehicle factories in China (2002), the U.S. (2005), Czechia (2008), and Russia (2010). In 2010, this enabled the automaker to produce more vehicles at its overseas operations than in Korea for the first time.