FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Hyundai Motor Co's <005380.KS> European operations will likely need to defer its mid-term sales and market share targets due to a dismal outlook for overall demand that is now starting to worry the stronger carmakers as well as the weak.
"I suspect the whole plan of selling 500,000 cars next year and achieving 5 percent market share in 2015 is being deferred by one year to be realistic, because the market decline exceeded our expectations," said Allan Rushforth, Chief Operating Officer of Hyundai Motor Europe in an interview published on Wednesday.
"So 2013 should give us half a million with the 5 percent achievable in 2016 at the earliest."
For the current year, Hyundai is aiming for a 3.5 percent share of the European market with a slight increase of 0.1 or 0.2 percentage points in the next one.
(Reporting By Christiaan Hetzner)
