Hyundai Motor Group chairman Chung Mong-koo visited Kia Motors’ factory in Zilina, a city in northwestern Slovakia, during a visit to Europe, the company’s officials said Thursday.

“Hyundai and Kia should overcome the uncertainty through global sales as we did grow by pioneering overseas markets,” Chung told employees at the factory.


The factory in Slovakia, which currently produces Kia Motor’s vehicles including Venga, Ceed and Sportage, aims to produce 335,000 units this year. Its production in the first half was 170,000 units, a 5 percent growth on-year.

Chung’s visit to Europe is seen by industry watchers as the company viewing the market as strategically important. The European auto market has seen stable growth over past years but uncertainty has recently risen due to the fallout of the Brexit vote.

“The global auto market is expected to continue low growth and the uncertainty in the European market may expand in the second half,” Chung said. “We should continue to show solid performance through localization, eco-friendly cars and sport utility vehicles.”

This year, SUVs drove the automaker’s sales in Europe, with Hyundai’s Tucson selling more than 80,000 units in the first half, a 47 percent growth on-year and Kia’s Sportage selling 77,000 units, a 39 percent rise during the same period.

The automaker also plans to enter the eco-friendly car market with a full lineup of such cars -- hybrid, plug-in hybrid, electric and hydrogen fuel cell cars. This year, the firm plans to launch the Ionic, Niro and K5 plug-in-hybrid in the European market.

A day before visiting the factory in Slovakia, Chung also went to Hyundai’s factory in St. Petersburg, Russia. There, he inspected the quality of Solaris, Hyundai’s best-selling car in Russia, as well as its new compact sport utility vehicle Creta and Rio.

Chung invited around 100 employees to a local hotel to encourage them to persevere despite difficult market conditions, calling them “patriots.”

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)