Since the COVID-19 epidemic seemed to be turning around in South Korea in early March, Hyundai decided to increase production with an eye on exporting more cars to the U.S., Reuters reports.



Those cars were built and shipped here, but now they're sitting in U.S. ports with nowhere to go.

HMA's CEO thinks that the work the company is doing to help customers during this crisis will be remembered when it's time to go shopping for new wheels again.

As the coronavirus pandemic was just starting to gain its devastating foothold in the U.S. in March, Hyundai Motor Company made a counterintuitive decision. The virus was relatively contained in the company's home of South Korea at the time, so HMC decided to increase vehicle production, according to a new report from Reuters.

Hyundai's Korean domestic production increased to 98 percent of its capacity in late March, Reuters says, part of a bet that there would be increased demand in the U.S. That's why, according to company data seen by Reuters, Hyundai shipped 33,990 vehicles to the U.S. in March, an increase of 4.3 percent compared to March 2019. But with many parts of the country still under stay-at-home orders due to COVID-19 and some states not declaring car dealerships essential businesses, U.S. car sales are down. That's why many of those vehicles are now simply sitting in ports, and the company's dealers are not currently interested in taking delivery of too much inventory.



Reuters said it could not independently verify how many Hyundai vehicles are being held in U.S. ports, and the automaker did not answer Car and Driver's direct questions about them. The company did release a statement that says it maintains "strong cooperative relationships with our dealers around the world and we will overcome this difficult time by further enhancing collaboration with our dealers." The company also said that it anticipates its "strong product lineup will keep us competitive against rivals in global markets, including the U.S., for the remainder of this year and into the future. We will work to maintain the optimal level of inventory at each step of the supply chain for each market where we operate, aiming for a faster recovery than others when the crisis softens and the global economy stabilizes."

That positive view of the future is the one taken by Hyundai Motor America CEO Jose Muñoz, who told Automotive News that being first out of the gate with its Job Loss Protection program and the work HMA has done to assist in the fight against COVID-19 will encourage customers to choose a new Palisade or Venue, perhaps, once things get back to something approaching normal. The cars are already here, after all.

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