Special Report: Hyosung
The
Hyundai
of TWO
ee s
Coming to a highway
near you . ..
By ALAN CATHCART
PHOTO By ALAN CATHCART AND PHIL SMITH
he revolution has been spoken of for
many years, and now it's upon us.
Some 20 years ago, the products
of car manufacturers from the Asian
land mass were viewed as low-cost
lightweights in the world scene - but
today, Proton, Kia, Daewoo and especially Hyundai are regarded as world
players in the automotive universe,
fully competitive with Japanese companies and European ones, too, in
terms of price, design and - increasingly - quality. Maybe it's no coincidence that three out of those four
companies are Korean.
Think back 40 years, and it was
the same on two wheels, rather than
four - but for Korea, read Japan.
Back then, purchasing a smallcapacity Japanese motorcycle was
an act of faith that was the consumer
equivalent of buying one of those
cheap 'n' cheerful portable radios or
T
pocket cameras that were Japan
Inc.'s early-'60s stock-in-trade. But
the arrival of the CB750 Honda in
1968 - arguably the single most sig-
46
JUNE 4, 2003'
cue
•
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nificant motorcycle ever launched changed all that, with consequences
that are still apparent today. However, after three decades ruling
worldwide sales charts, the rising
costs of manufacturing at home in
Japan have caused all four J-marques growing concern, especially in
terms of remaining competitive in the
low-cost markets and product sectors
in which they made their two-wheeled
corporate fortunes. One way to
counter this has been a greater
emphasis on off-shore manufacturing, with a constant look over their
shoulders at the specter of the growing Chinese motorcycle industry,
presently producing more than 10
million units annually, and certain to
be a potent competitor in world markets over the next two decades.
However, manufacturing offshore
has its dangers, too, since with rare
exceptions this can only be performed (in those countries where
costs are lower) via joint ventures
with local companies, with the
inevitable risk that these may eventually end up growing big enough, and
confident enough, to terminate the
