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Hyundai Motor Group dominates New York Auto Show with reveals, investments, race car
Posted by Talbot Payne on April 17, 2025
New York — South Korea’s automotive juggernaut continues to roll in the United States with record sales in 2024 for Hyundai Motor Group. The family of Hyundai, Kia and Genesis brands sold 1.7 million vehicles for a combined 11% market share. With three U.S. manufacturing plants and a starring role in the New York and Los Angeles auto shows, the Asian brands have a decidedly American accent.
In the Big Apple this week, they made major moves for an even bigger bite of the U.S. market.
Hyundai, Kia and Genesis dominated media week at the New York International Auto Show, introducing three all-new production vehicles while Genesis unveiled an off-road concept and stunning prototype race car to take on the world’s premier endurance brands, including Porsche, Ford, Cadillac, Toyota and BMW, in North America’s red-hot IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Series.
With massive, billion-dollar investments in right-to-work states Georgia and Alabama, HMG could be poised to benefit from U.S. tariffs in the same way that Japanese rivals Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. became woven into America’s manufacturing fabric after the Reagan era’s import quotas 40 years ago.
“Auto shows have always been very important. New York and Los Angeles are where we want to be very present,” said Hyundai COO Claudia Marquez in an interview here. “We have amazing product to show and want to reach out to as many customers as we can.”
The Korean brands have used auto shows over the last two decades to debut significant product advances, and 2025 in Gotham is no different.
Hyundai dropped a bold, stunning redesign of its three-row Palisade. In just one generation, the SUV and its Kia Telluride sibling, which was also introduced in 2020, have become serious players in the three-row family ute segment long dominated by the Ford Explorer, Honda Pilot and Chevy Traverse. They both sold in six figures last year for a combined total of over 215,000 units — more than segment pioneer Explorer.
Auto analyst Rebecca Lindland, managing director of Allison Worldwide, said the posh Korean twins have been key to transforming their brands’ dollar store image: “The perception of Hyundai and Kia was that they were cheap. Palisade and Telluride have done a lot to overcome that stigma.”
“Welcome to New York!” exclaimed Hyundai CEO Joe Muñoz to a packed media gallery on the brand’s Javits Convention Center stage. “We are investing more because we have resolved to be a market leader.”
Palisade is made at the automaker’s assembly complex in Alabama, the flagship of U.S. operations that employ 57,00 people across the United States. Hyundai also recently announced the expansion of its Savannah, Georgia, operations, part of $21 billion in U.S. investments including a $5.8 billion steel mill in Louisiana to produce auto parts for its southern facilities.
Hyundai unveiled a redesigned version of its popular three-row Palisade SUV in New York on Wednesday. Genesis
“We are gratified to be helping so many to realize the American Dream,” Muñoz said. By 2030, he continued, Hyundai plans another $90 billion in investment worldwide while introducing 21 new electric vehicles and 14 new hybrids.
HMG’s ambitious plans have positioned it for growth in the United States just as the nation’s political needle has swung protectionist again.
“We are really proud to stand with you and proud to build the future together,” said Hyundai Chairman Euisun Chung as he announced the U.S. investments in late March from the White House alongside President Donald Trump and Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry.
Hyundai’s positioning echoes that of Honda and Toyota, which began U.S. production in, respectively, Ohio and Kentucky the 1980s as the Reagan administration and a Democratic Congress imposed protectionist measures. Four decades later, foreign transplant automakers account for about half of U.S. auto employment, most of it nonunion.
Not by accident, Hyundai’s investments are also in nonunion, so-called right-to-work states.
“The transplants like Hyundai have stayed competitive with Detroit Three UAW plants in pay scale, but as nonunion plants they have the flexibility to control production,” said auto analyst Lindland. “In times of uncertain market demand, it is one of the biggest benefits of being nonunion. You don’t have union rules constraining you.”
COO Marquez said tariffs are a fact of international trade: “It is a reality (for which) we feel we are very well prepared,” she said. “We are committed to continue investing in the U.S. Last year, we sold 836,000 units and 40% of those were produced in the U.S. The U.S. is a very important market and we want to be a very important part of it in the future.”
Hyundai Motor Group has also positioned itself for government electric vehicle mandates. New York, for example, is a so-called zero-emission-state that requires automaker sales to be 35% EV for the 2026 model year or face massive fines.
No manufacturers save electric makers like Tesla Inc. and Rivian Automotive Inc. are close, but the Koreans have created parallel EV and internal combustion engine lines.
Kia for example, introduced the EV4 compact EV alongside its gas-powered K4 hatchback Wednesday. The $23k K4 sedan — its upscale looks echoing a Cadillac CT5 — has been wildly popular since its introduction this year.
Made in South Korea (along with the EV4), the K4s could face affordability challenges because of tariffs, but so far this year the sedan model has outsold everything in the Korean brand’s lineup — even its popular Sportage SUV.
Hyundai, too, produces parallel ICE and EV lines (the Palisade’s EV counterpart is the three-row Ioniq 9, for example).
“EVs are very important and we believe they are where the market is going to grow in the long term,” said Marquez. “The investment in our (EV/hybrid) factory is one of the biggest investments in the Georgia state. We produce two models there at the moment — Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 9.”
Perhaps the biggest sign of HMG’s arrival in the big leagues was the unveiling here of its Genesis GTP race car. Genesis will be the first Korean brand to compete for overall wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and IMSA’s Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona when the GTP race car debuts in 2027.
Brazil’s Pipo Derani, one of the world’s premier sports car racers — and a former IMSA champion with Cadillac — introduced the hypercar as its new lead driver.
“It’s a race car, but it’s definitely a Genesis with its two stripes,” Derani said of the twin headlights and taillights that are a brand signature. “It’s a way for clients and fans to become more integrated with our brand.”
Marquez, formerly COO of Genesis, beamed at the brand’s ambition to compete alongside motorsports icons Porsche, Ferrari, Toyota, McLaren, Cadillac, BMW, Acura and Aston Marin.
“We are extremely proud of Genesis taking this step,” she said, noting the announcement came during its 10th anniversary year. “Of course, this is a big investment in the confidence of the brand. Racing is very important in the U.S., and the U.S. is the most important market for us right now.”
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or @HenryEPayne.