Ordered my Kona Ultimate January 2022. Was told delivery around June. This slipped to July. Which slipped to August, which slipped to “late September”. In late August, I rang for an update – system showing delivery now March 2023, a total of 14 months after the order. Just ludicrously bad customer service, Hyundai’s attitude being “tough luck”, and I have never, ever been contacted by Hyundai or dealer, it’s always me chasing.
Another wierd update today – dealer says delivery now showing as December 2022. I have approximately zero confidence this will happen. None whatsoever. Dealer said they’ve had many Motability customers cancelling orders due to the farcical nature of not having a reasonably accurate delivery date, allied to the sheer length of time people are being asked to wait. These are disabled people, who need a car more than most. And dealer tried to sell me a Bayon instead, which was in stock. However, this is a mild hybrid, nothing like the all electric Kona I ordered.
I have a theory that Hyundai are actively looking for Motability customers to cancel orders, hence why they are pushing back deliveries to ludicrous extremes. Why? Because Motability are Europe’s largest car fleet, and they must negotiate enormous discounts thanks to their sheer volume, such that I suspect Hyundai’s margins for Motability sales are the lowest it gets pretty much anywhere. With a shortage of new cars, Hyundai see themselves selling these precious, in demand vehicles for very low profit margins to Motability, when they can see they can sell them to private buyers and smaller fleets for much higher margins. Normally, supply is sufficient to meet all demand, so Hyundai lose nothing selling to Motability. However, as supply is so constrained, the opportunity cost of a Motability sale is the lost profits from a non-Motability sale.
In other words, Hyundai are hoping to replace low margin Motability sales with high margin private sales, and every cancelled Motability car can now immediately be sold to waiting private buyers at much, much higher margins, boosting Hyundai’s profits despite not selling any extra cars, just selling the ones they have at a higher price.
Of course, I have no evidence to support this, and I likely never will have, but it fits in with Hyundai massively extending delivery times for Motability customers, who I know are cancelling in significant volumes.