By admin 
Hyundai Australia has a brand new boss – Don Romano – and his mission is straightforward: flip the model’s fortunes round amid an onslaught of recent challenger manufacturers and the looming menace of federal emissions rules.
Mr Romano turned down retirement to affix the native arm of Hyundai because the first-ever non-Korean CEO seven weeks in the past, after efficiently heading up Hyundai Canada for 11 years.
By his personal admission, he has confronted a large number of challenges in his roles elsewhere, however none fairly evaluate to what he’s up towards Down Beneath.
A whole bunch of recent automotive offers can be found via CarExpert proper now. Get the specialists in your facet and rating an amazing deal. Browse now.
In 2025, auto manufacturers in Australia should deal with a saturated market containing no fewer than 60 separate manufacturers – dozens greater than you’ll discover in different main markets – with many extra to come back.
Hyundai was among the many nation’s high manufacturers till just a few years in the past, promoting in extra of 100,000 automobiles between 2014 and 2016, earlier than its gross sales declined to about 75,000 in 2023 after which 71,664 in 2024, inserting it sixth on the league ladder behind Toyota (241,296 gross sales), Ford (100,170), Mazda (95,987), sister model Kia (81,787), and Mitsubishi (74,547).
Moreover, this yr marks the beginning of the New Car Effectivity Normal (NVES), which features a set of stringent emissions targets designed to scale back the carbon footprint of Australia’s new automobile market.
These elements, together with a bunch of different financial strain factors, render Australia a troublesome place to do enterprise in keeping with Mr Romano.
“There’s nothing fairly prefer it – you’re speaking 70 manufacturers, whereas the markets I’ve labored in have had anyplace from 20 to 30 manufacturers,” mentioned Mr Romano.
“So we positively have a novel problem right here that we don’t see in different markets. I believe the problem is larger, however you even have just a few manufacturers which might be very dominant right here, extra dominant right here than they’re in different markets. They’re extra dominant although you’ve gotten extra manufacturers, which may be very uncommon to me.
“So the query is, how do you construct a model that may future proof itself sustainably towards an onslaught of recent entries?”
“In relation to NVES, there’s going to be numerous manufacturers which might be going to start out falling aside as a result of they’re burying their heads within the sand.”
Mr Romano joins Hyundai Australia at an essential juncture for the automaker, after annual gross sales declined by 4.7 per cent final yr.
Plans to reverse the pattern embrace an injection of selling funding, growth of the mannequin lineup, and a renewed deal with vendor engagement.
Mr Romano will oversee the launch of a number of key fashions within the coming months and years, together with the Inster compact electrical automobile (EV), the Ioniq 9 massive electrical SUV, and the next-generation Palisade massive SUV and Nexo fuel-cell automobile.
Talking with the media on the launch of the Inster, Hyundai’s smallest and least expensive EV to date, Mr Romano mentioned he deliberate to cease the gross sales decline and “to not go proper as much as 100,000, however to start out rising once more”.
“I’m not going to decide to any quantity apart from progress – we’re not going to go backwards,” he mentioned.
“We’ve been going again for 5, six years and we have to flip that nook. We’re going to do it this yr, and we’re going to start out going the opposite method sustainably and cautiously, via good model administration and finally new merchandise.”
Nevertheless, Mr Romano mentioned the required gross sales progress wouldn’t come from new battery-electric just like the Inster and Ioniq 9 alone.
EVs accounted for simply 3.7 per cent of Hyundai’s Australian gross sales final yr, with a complete of 2665 gross sales throughout its Kona, Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6 strains.
The clock is ticking for Mr Romano, who expects to carry the Korean model’s native CEO position for not more than three years earlier than transitioning in direction of retirement.
“We have to future-proof our enterprise, and that’s why I’m right here,” he advised CarExpert.
MORE: Everything Hyundai