“Handei ne Hyundai” was a caption on the back of the Hyundai Excel at the turn of the century that became a famous, then an infamous taxi around the country.

The Hyundai brand was established in 1967, with roots in ship building. Today, it is a truly global brand, with presence in nearly 200 countries. Hyundai owns the world’s largest automobile plant in Ulsan, South Korea, with a production capacity of over 1.6 million vehicles annually.

The brand was brought into the country at the end of the 20^th century, and brought a breadth of fresh air to a country that was limited largely to either the Nissan Sunny or the Mazda 323 for a company car. The vehicles were assembled in Botswana from 1993 to 2001 by a company with some Zimbabwean roots.

Hyundai brought in the entry level Excel, the mid executive Elantra, and the executive Sonata to the Zimbabwean auto space.

The Excel was very affordable, and soon gained a sizeable market share. However, affordability seemed not to be associated with quality. The quality shortcomings soon became apparent on the Excel, which soon accelerated the demise of the brand in Zimbabwe. Excel also failed in America, forcing Hyundai to go back to the drawing board, and invest heavily in research and technology. This helped to re-establish the brand’s quality, which has helped to change the quality perception completely. Hyundai is now a growing, well-established brand that is able to compete with the giants of the industry.

Today Hyundai is marketed in Zimbabwe under Hyundai Zimbabwe, a Clover Leaf subsidiary. Some of the notable products on the market include the latest SUV beast; the Pallisade, the beautiful Santa Fe SUV, the Tucson, Creta, Elantra, and the i10 to i40 range.

The Elantra and Santa Fe have performed very well in recent years, winning various awards.

The new brands have benefited from the presence of the Hyundai/Kia brand in South Africa, where market share is evidently growing. Hyundai owns 33.88% of Kia.

Today Hyundai is rated among the top ten best automakers in the world, based on performance, comfort, utility and reliability, by respectable consumer survey reports. The Hyundai brand is now considered to be in the same league as the world’s best, such as Toyota, GM and VW, in terms of sales and quality.