Hyundai Takes Aim at VW and Toyota With a 100-Model Product Blitz

It’s been 40 years since Hyundai’s little Excel subcompact landed in U.S. showrooms. While the little car’s low price tag initially drew buyers into showrooms, late night comics focused on its quality and reliability problems, Leno comparing it to the Olympic Luge. Excel, he joked, was a “three-foot vehicle that has to be pushed to get started and only goes downhill.”

You seldom hear folks joking about Hyundai these days, especially not its competitors. With an expanded line-up including models like the Palisade – named North American Utility Vehicle of the Year last January – Hyundai reported yet another U.S. sales record for August. Globally, it is now the third-largest automaker, behind just Volkswagen and king-of-the-hill Toyota, aft rising from seventh place in 2019.

“Their rise has been meteoric,” said Paul Waatti, director of industry analysis for research firm AutoPacifc, Inc.

Big Plans

Last year, the Hyundai and Genesis brands sold 4.24 million vehicles worldwide, up 2%. (Factoring in the Kia brand brought the group’s total to 7.24 million.) But CEO Jose Munoz last week made it clear the Korean carmaker has significantly bigger aspirations. During Hyundai’s annual Investors Day event in Seoul, the Mexican-born Munoz – who also runs the company’s critical North American operations – rolled out a new plan calling for Hyundai and Genesis alone to boost their global capacity by 1.27 million vehicles annually by 2030.

That’s the equivalent of four to five traditional assembly plants, though some of that will come through boosting output at existing facilities. The expansion program includes the home market of Korea but, under Munoz, Hyundai is emphasizing localization, designing products for, and then building them in, key markets. In India, for example, capacity will rise by over 300,000 – to about 1.4 million vehicles a year. North America, however, will be at the heart of the plan, no surprise considering the automaker’s seemingly endless streak of month-over-month sales records pushing factories like the Metaplant in Ellabell, Georgia, to their limits. U.S. capacity will surge by about 500,000 over the next four years.

Related: Hyundai Just Got A $5 Billion Weapon In America’s EV Fight

A Product Blitz is on the Way

Boosting production capacity like that requires having the right vehicles to win over new customers – and in today’s hotly competitive market, it’s not that’s easy, cautioned Waatti. But Hyundai intends to launch a virtually unheard-of product blitz – 100 completely new and updated models by 2030. Of those, 58 well come to the North American market. Others, including some battery-electric vehicles, will be reserved for markets in Europe, Latin America and Asia.

We’ve already gotten a look at some of what’s coming. That includes the Genesis GV90 and the luxury brand’s first high-performance Magma model. Significantly, the Neolum version of the all-electric GV90 will take Genesis to new heights from a price and image standpoint. Expected to come in around $150,000, the lavish four-seat SUV will directly target the best from Mercedes’ Maybach sub-brand. Hyundai has teased still others, with a production version of the rugged Boulder SUV that debuted at the 2026 New York International Auto Show officially being “investigated” – though two senior company officials assured me it’s all but gotten the green light to move ahead. Munoz, at the time, also said more variants, including a midsize pickup, will follow. And we’ll see variants come from Genesis and Kia, as well.

Related: Genesis Just Revealed Its Electric Flagship, Now It May Add a Gas Engine

Robots and Robocabs

The plan Hyundai’s CEO unveiled adds more dimension to the announcement made by Hyundai last year, calling for $26 billion in U.S. investments. That will cover a flood of new and updated vehicle lines, as well as expanded production. The company also is setting up a new steel plant in Louisiana. And it plans to use an expanded Metaplant to build the company’s anthropomorphic Atlas robot. Developed by its Boston Dynamics subsidiary, it’s set to go into production in 2028.

Related: Watch Hyundai’s Atlas Humanoid Robot Pull Soccer Moves Like A Pro

Hyundai also plans to expand its efforts in software and artificial intelligence – technologies that will play a role in autonomous driving and robotaxis. That effort will get a boost from the deal it’s inked with Waymo. The robotaxi leader will take delivery late this year of the first driverless version of Hyundai’s all-electric Ioniq 5. Hyundai is set to launch its own service, Motional, later this year. “Robotaxis are the new channel that is going to help a lot,” Munoz noted during his Seoul presentation.

Back from the Brink

Hyundai’s current success marks the sort of turnaround that business students at schools like Harvard are told to study. It’s all the more notable considering how close the company came to disaster following the initial – albeit brief – success of the Excel. At $4,995, the little car undercut everything on the market and sales went stratospheric – initially. That even prompted Hyundai to set up a factory in Bromont, Quebec. But as quality and reliability problems took their toll on sales, the plant was shuttered in 1994 and Hyundai gave serious thought to abandoning the North American market.

How did it turn things around? In hindsight, Munoz suggests, “Hyundai’s success is due to our relentless customer focus and our ability to deliver compelling products that delight buyers and exceed their expectations.” Following his Investors Day appearance, Munoz told me via email that, “We constantly striver to improve our resilience and flexibility and are always assessing marketing opportunities to deliver the right product at the right price at the right time.”

That’s a reasonable summary. But it helps to dive into specifics. The first step required proving Hyundai products were more than just bargain-basement offerings. They had to deliver value for the money. And they had to stand up under day-to-day use. In 1999 the company launched an industry-leading 10-year/100,000 mile warranty. More importantly, it began a serious internal assault on its quality problems. That’s readily apparent today, the automaker routinely landing among the top tier brands in the Power studies – often with one of its brands capturing the top spot.

“Help Wanted”

Clearly, Americans value quality and reliability – but the warranty program primarily helped Hyundai staunch the exodus of buyers. Going forward, it had to take several other steps, said Sam Fiorani, chief analyst with AutoForecast Solutions. It required:

A shift from slow-selling sedans and coupes to increasingly popular SUVs and CUVs;
A design revolution;
Significant improvements in performance and ride dynamics.

One of the most impactful moves was the 2006 hiring of Audi’s legendary design boss Peter Schreyer by Kia – who subsequently went on to become head of design – and president of the entire Hyundai Motor Group. “I want to make the brands strong, while keeping them fresh,” Schreyer told me before his 2023 retirement. That’s clearly worked, “Hyundai design is different,” in a market filled with too many look-alike models, said analyst Waatti. “People notice and you can see that in Hyundai’s market share.”

Another European, Luc Donckerwolke, has since picked up the reins, now serving as the automaker’s global chief design and creative officer. Meanwhile, Albert Bierman signed on in 2015 to address Hyundai’s engineering challenges. His six years with the company – from 2015 through 2021 – can be measured in the significant improvements in the ride, handling and performance of Hyundai products. It’s unlikely we’d see the Hyundai “N” and new Genesis Magma models without him.

By the Numbers

By almost every measurement Hyundai has scored the sort of comeback and growth rarely seen in the auto industry – or business in general. It was not just the world’s third best-selling automaker in 2025, but second in terms of operating earnings, at $13.9 billion compared to Volkswagen Group’s $10.4 billion.

The numbers continue to look good so far this year, buoyed by continuing sales gains. The Hyundai brand delivered another record in August, it announced Tuesday morning, “August demonstrated the strength of Hyundai’s portfolio,” said Randy Parker, president and CEO, Hyundai Motor North America. “Hybrid demand remained strong, helping electrified vehicles reach 34% of total sales and hybrids achieve a record share.”

Related: Genesis Does Not Want To Be The Discount Alternative To BMW And Mercedes

The Genesis brand also reported record sales for the month. After a slow start – with a meager product portfolio — Genesis is rapidly climbing out of the luxury market cellar, topping Ford’s Lincoln brand and coming within striking distance of Cadillac, moving 82,331 vehicles in the U.S. during the first half of 2025 compared to 86,104 for General Motors’ flagship brand. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Genesis started outselling Cadillac,” Waatti told me. The test will come at the end of September, GM only reporting U.S. sales on a quarterly basis.

How High Can it Go?

If anything, Hyundai hopes it can take down today’s industry leaders. And it’s certainly making a good run at it. If anything, “they have a shot” at moving up to number two, considering all the challenges facing VW, said Erin Keating, lead auto analyst with Cox Automotive. The German giant’s CEO has already made it clear the company needs to pare back, though his proposed plan to close up to five plants has so far been rejected by the Volkswagen Supervisory Board. As for Toyota, that’s another matter entirely. “I don’t know if I could see Hyundai unseating Toyota,” said Keating. True, Toyota has had its share of troubles lately – including an embarrassing quality issue involving the i-Force Max engine used in the Tundra pickup and other products. But “Toyota has a lot of staying power,” she stressed.

Hyundai, meanwhile, needs to steer clear of the sort of mistakes that other former powerhouse brands have made over the decades. That notably includes Ford which dominated the global industry during the early part of the 20^th Century. Then there’s General Motors. It was the undisputed powerhouse for eight decades, only to sink to sixth on the list of global manufacturers today, having all but abandoned key markets such as Europe and India. “Executives at Hyundai need to keep their eye on the ball,” said Fiorani. There are plenty of pitfalls that could trip them up, including shifting market demands, an uncertain economy and, in the critical U.S. market, the mercurial policy moves by Pres. Donald Trump. Munoz and his team also need to be careful that they don’t divert too many resources as they enter new arenas, such as robotics, said Fiorani, adding that. “This is an extremely competitive industry and it’s easy to overlook something that costs you your lead.”

This story was originally published September 6, 2026 at 9:00 AM.