This file photo provided by Honda Korea shows the new CR-V hybrid and the upgraded Accord hybrid models.
SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — Honda Korea Co. said Thursday it will launch three new models and a platform to sell its vehicles online this year to revive its lackluster sales, becoming the first import carmaker that will go fully online.
Honda Korea plans to open the online platform for car sales in Korea within the first half, while keeping its current offline dealerships for less tech-savvy customers, the company’s President and Chief Executive Lee Ji-hong said in a press conference.
“Before coming up with the conclusion, the company contemplated ways to meet changing business trends in the automobile industry and consulted with local dealerships on ways to continue business for the next 100 to 200 years,” he said.
South Korea is the second country for the Japanese carmaker to adopt an online platform for local sales after Australia in which the same platform was launched a year ago.
Honda Korea will also introduce the “one-price policy” for all of its vehicles to be sold in Korea to secure “transparency” once the online platform is adopted, the CEO said.
In fact, final vehicle purchasing prices still vary depending on the time of purchase, carmakers and dealerships’ promotions, customers’ negotiation skills, and other factors.
In the existing dealerships, the “Honda curators,” who were formerly called sales consultants, will focus on explaining the products and helping customers experience models and purchase them through the online platform, he said.
To help revive sales, Honda Korea said it plans to introduce three new models this year, with the Honda CRV SUV scheduled to be launched as the first model within the first half.
In this photo taken on Jan. 11, 2023, and provided by Honda Korea Co., the company’s President and CEO Lee Ji-hong delivers a briefing on its business strategy this year during a media roundtable held at Park Hyatt Seoul Hotel in southern Seoul.
As for electrification, the executive said Honda Korea will be able to introduce an all-electric model equipped with its own e-architecture platform in three to four years.
Honda and Sony’s joint mobility venture unveiled a new EV prototype called Afeela at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas early this month.
The joint venture said the car will be available for orders and purchases in 2025 but its deliveries would not take place in North America until 2026.
Japanese carmakers, including Honda, have suffered a sharp decline in sales here in recent years following the trade dispute that erupted in July 2019.
Back then, Japan tightened regulations on exports to South Korea of three high-tech materials critical for the production of semiconductors and displays.
In August, Japan also removed South Korea from its list of countries given preferential treatment in trade procedures.
South Korea viewed the moves as retaliation against 2018 Supreme Court rulings here ordering Japanese firms to compensate South Korean victims of forced labor during Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
For all of 2022, Honda Korea sold a total of 3,140 vehicles, down 28 percent from 4,355 units the previous year.
Honda sells passenger vehicles and two wheelers in Korea and it earns 50 percent of its sales from the motorcycle business.
(Yonhap)
