When the Apple iPad went on sale in the U.S. last Saturday, some 300,000 people spent $500 to $600 to get their hands on the technology first. But marketers at Hyundai Motors are hoping that this fall they can persuade another group of early adopters to spend about 100 times that much for their iPads—which will come wrapped in the carmaker’s new luxury sedan.
Anyone who buys a new Hyundai Equus, with a suggested retail price of about $50,000, will get an “interactive owner’s manual” loaded onto the new tablet device from Apple, Hyundai Motor America announced at the New York Auto Show last week. The Hyundai data will be pre-loaded into the iPad; other than that, new owners are free to use it for anything else they may need from a computer.
“Who reads a 300-page manual anyway?” Hyundai North America CEO John Krafcik told the New York Times at the car show. “Instead, they’ll have a gorgeous color touchscreen loaded with the manual electronically, as well as photos of the whole Hyundai lineup.”
The Equus iPad will be fitted out in a leather slipcase and come with car service appointments loaded into its scheduler. Owners can set those appointments with their dealers using either the iPad’s wireless functions or voice capabilities.
While it was not specified, it’s presumed the iPad version used in the promotion will be the WiFi one that went on sale last weekend. A more expensive version that connects to the Web using the AT&T 3G network will hit U.S. Apple stores later this month, well before the Equus’ expected launch date this summer. But using that model of the device to go online will entail a monthly subscription fee to AT&T.
Hyundai has recently seen strong U.S. sales in its traditional mid-priced models and posted March sales that were 36% higher than those of the same month in 2009. But the Equus has been designed to be the carmaker’s full-fledged entry into the luxury vehicle market and to compete bumper-to-bumper with Toyota’s Lexus LS460 and the Mercedes-Benz S-Class.
Besides building in style and design details like a V8 engine, hand-finished wood and leather appointments and a 608-watt audio system with 17 speakers, Hyundai has also upped its game in terms of customer service on the Equus. Less than half of the company’s current U.S. dealerships will sell the model when it reaches this country. Those who are permitted to offer it will have to meet strict internal scoring standards for customer service and must also build a separate showroom to set the Equus off from other Hyundai products.
Customers who request service for their vehicles will have the option to have them picked up from their home or office and a mid-luxury Hyundai Genesis sedan dropped as a loaner car. And if a prospective buyer requests, specially trained sales personnel will offer to pick them up and give them a test-drive in the new Equus.
Krafcik told press that the company expects to sell about 3,000 of the new Equus models in 2011.
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