🔥 Hyundai Motor, a tug-of-war between sales figures and Ulsan production lines - 2026.11.02

Hey~ It’s Onion 🧅 After watching the market for 30 years, few things get your heart racing like the sales figures at the start of the month! Well, well~ today, let’s start with Hyundai Motor.

October sales: let’s take a look at the numbers first 📊

Hyundai Motor sold 329,773 vehicles in October, down 6.3% year over year ^[1]. Still, topping 320,000 means the market is very much alive. Also in the picture: an announcement from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy that South Korea’s auto exports fell 5.5% to 6,050,000,000 USD in September, while domestic sales dropped 14.3% ^[5]. The whole market seems to have quieted down.

The Ulsan Genesis line: why did it stop?

The Genesis production line at the Ulsan plant halted operations for two days amid labor-management conflict over introducing test vehicles for a new model ^[2]. The cause was a failure to narrow differences in talks on staffing and workloads needed for mass production of the new model. Union representatives on the shop floor are concerned that the number of workers assigned to the line could fall after the new model is introduced. They plan to meet to discuss countermeasures and whether to resume operations. Here’s a question: if the pace of launching a new model doesn’t match the staffing plan, where does the production flow break down? That question is still open.

The third-quarter defense: how did profits hold up?

An SS Focus article noted that Hyundai Motor increased operating profit and protected profitability despite lower sales in the third quarter of this year ^[3]. The article cited hybrids and exchange rates as contributing factors, but that should be taken as the article’s interpretation. In my view, keeping profits on the defensive while revenue has fallen for the first time in six years is a pretty important signal. On the other hand, an MBC report said the Tesla Model Y sold 11,421 units in September alone, ranking first in domestic passenger-car sales and beating the Grandeur and Avante ^[5]. It also noted that pure EV sales fell by more than 9% compared with the same period last year ^[5]. Oof, that’s a painful point.

Discount offers and the challenges ahead

Even so, Hyundai Motor isn’t sitting back. On the 1st, it announced that, for K-Sale Festa, it would offer a standard discount of 1,000,000 KRW on the Avante gasoline model and Santa Fe ^[4]. Santa Fe buyers can get an additional discount of up to 1,000,000 KRW depending on the month of production. Whether the discounts translate into sales is something to watch. For reference, the closing price on the 2nd was ₩287,000, up +1.77% from the previous trading day.

Onion thinks the bullish scenario remains alive if hybrids and new-model launches can provide support, even as sales figures decline. But how quickly labor-management talks can get the line running again, and how far EV competition from the likes of the Model Y will spread, are the key variables in the next round. Who will be smiling first? 🚀

📰 Reference News (4)

2

Hyundai Motor labor and management

네이버뉴스 · 2026.11.02

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3

Hyundai Motor overcomes steep sales slump, Kia finds a breakthrough… ‘Hybrids and exchange rates’ rescued third-quarter results [SS Focus]

네이버뉴스 · 2026.11.02

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📺 Reference Videos (1)

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YouTube

"At that price, I’d rather…" Model Y onslaught and BYD’s charge: Is the people’s car now Tesla? Hyundai Motor shows troubling signs - [Hot Issue PLAY] MBC News, November 01, 2026

▶MBCNEWS·2026.11.01