Hyundai Casper's Box Office Success... Will the Compact Car Market Make a Comeback?

[Asia Economy Reporter Yu Je-hoon] Hyundai Motor Company's Casper, a compact sports utility vehicle (SUV) released for the first time in 19 years, has attracted attention for potentially revitalizing the stagnant compact car market by achieving strong early pre-order sales.

According to industry sources on the 25th, Hyundai Casper recorded 18,940 pre-orders on the first day of pre-contracts, the 14th. By the 23rd, approximately 25,000 pre-orders had been made.

Considering that Gwangju Global Motors (GGM), responsible for contract manufacturing, has a production target of 12,000 units by the end of this year and 70,000 units next year, the entire production volume for this year was sold out in just one day of pre-orders.

Industry insiders are paying close attention to whether Casper can bring a fresh breeze to the compact car market. The compact car market once grew by leveraging outstanding economic efficiency, but recently, due to the trend toward larger and more luxurious vehicles in the automobile market, even the 100,000-unit sales barrier was broken last year.

The situation this year is also challenging. According to Kia, the cumulative sales of compact car models Ray and Morning from January to August this year were 23,657 and 22,962 units, respectively. Korea GM's compact car model Spark also sold 13,746 units cumulatively until August this year. The combined sales of these three models amount to about 60,000 units.

Casper has strengths in that it is an SUV model, which is currently the trend in the automobile market, and that it is Hyundai's first new compact car model in 19 years. Its excellent product features, such as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), are also advantages. On the downside, the starting price by trim ranges from 13.85 million KRW (Smart) to 18.7 million KRW (Inspiration), which is considered somewhat high.

An industry official said, "Since the overall market trend is toward larger and more luxurious vehicles, it will be difficult to go against the trend," adding, "Since Casper is positioned as an entry-level SUV, its success may lead to an expansion of the SUV market rather than a resurgence of the compact car market."