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Hyundai Forgets Plan To Sell U.S. Pickups

by Darren

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Hyundai has decided that now is not the time to launch a U.S. pickup truck business. The company had planned to begin manufacturing pickups in the U.S, but recent business conditions have shelved the plans.

The largest South Korean automaker had considered producing pickups at a plant of its subsidiary Kia Motors Corp. that is now under construction in the state of Georgia, near a Hyundai plant in Alabama. The Kia factory is expected to be completed in 2010.

“We had studied it as a long-term project. But it appears to be too early to get into the market now because oil prices are rising sharply and trucks don’t sell well in the United States,” said Jake Jang, a Hyundai spokesman.

Sales of pickup trucks in the United States are down for two reasons: 1) consumers are buying less pickups because of soaring gas costs and 2) businesses are purchasing less pickup trucks because of the housing slump.