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For a variety of reasons, most of which have to do with a number of different taxes and tariffs on imports, South Korea is dominated by local makers such as Hyundai and Kia, but recently, foreign companies have made attempts to slowly penetrate the country's tightly controlled car market.

Today, Toyota announced plans to begin exports of its U.S.-built Sienna minivan to distributors in South Korea with first shipments scheduled to arrive later this month.

Toyota entered the South Korean market for the first time in 2010, though the firm's Lexus luxury brand has been active in the country since 2001.

This is the first time that the Sienna, which is produced at Toyota’s manufacturing plant in Princeton, Indiana, will be exported outside of North America. Toyota said that the initial plan calls for the export of approximately 600 units annually.

The Japanese brand began exporting U.S.-built vehicles in 1988 and in the 2010 calendar year, it shipped around 100,000 vehicles to 18 countries around the world.

“Toyota’s North American operations are constantly working to identify and expand new export opportunities for the vehicles we produce here, building on our extensive investments in auto production, research and development in the U.S. and helping to maintain a strong, stable base of jobs,” said Yoshimi Inaba, president and COO of Toyota Motor North America, Inc.

“With this development and other possible achievements in the future, we hope to continue boosting exports from our North American operations.”

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second Red Bull of Mark Webber, The McLaren pilot

With the drivers’ title already decided, the only question before the red lights went off to signal the start of the Korean Grand Prix was whether Red Bull would manage to snag the constructors’ championship as well or if McLaren, the only team with a shot at the title, could keep its (admittedly slim) chances alive for yet another race.

As it turned out, McLaren couldn't. Despite Lewis Hamilton securing pole position on Saturday and Jenson Button taking third place on the grid, it took two-times world champion Sebastian Vettel less than half a lap into the race before overtaking Hamilton on the fourth corner.

From this point on, it was business as usual for the young German who built a comfortable lead and crossed the finish line first, with a 12-seconds difference from Hamilton.

The McLaren pilot raced side-by-side with the second Red Bull of Mark Webber, thankfully without the two cars coming into contact. Further back, Button squandered his good starting position by falling behind the Ferraris at the start of the race. He managed to overtake them during the first round of pit stops, and came very close to Webber and Hamilton, but was never fast enough to pass either.

Fernando Alonso didn’t have an easy race as for its most part he couldn’t get past his team mate, Felipe Massa. He did it in his final pit stop and then picked up his pace by 0.5 seconds a lap.

But the Spaniard found overtaking Button’s McLaren impossible, and after the race admitted defeat by saying “I just give up”.

As a reminder of who is the boss this year, despite having already secured his 10th win of the season, Vettel posted the fastest time of the race during the last lap…

Therefore, Red Bull bagged the constructor’s title, too, three races before the end of the season. “It’s phenomenal” was team’s boss Christian Horner comment on his team walking away with all the silverware for the second year in a row. "Phenomenal for the team, phenomenal for every single member of the Red Bull Racing / Red Bull Technology Group and for everyone working for Red Bull."

Kia, Kia Cee'd, Kia Sorento, Kia Venga, Korea, Reports PHOTO GALLERY

To keep up with rising demand for Kia models in Europe, the South Korean has decided to introduce a third shift at its Zilina plant in Slovakia and hire another 1,000 new employees. The company expects the recruitment process to be completed by December and have the three-shifts operational in the first quarter of 2012.

“The creation of the third shift at Zilina is the latest step in Kia’s long-term process of building cars locally to best meet local consumers’ needs and tastes,” commented Paul Philpott, Chief Operating Officer, Kia Motors Europe. “Strong demand for all our models and especially our new Sportage compact SUV, made here in Europe, means we need to significantly increase production at our Slovakia facility.”

The Zilina factory produces the Sportage SUV, the Venga compact MPV and all versions (3-door, 5-door and estate) of the C-segment Cee’d. Kia has invested more than €1 billion ($1.35 billion USD) in its European production facility in Slovakia, which is flexible enough to produce completely different models and adapt to demand.

Yet with sales increasing 18.7% in Europe, 24.4% in China and 36.9% in the USA, Kia was compelled to add a third shift at Zilina, creating more jobs not only in its own plant but also to local suppliers.

The Korean carmaker will also add a third shift at its West Point plant in Georgia, which produces the Sorento SUV and the Optima saloon, and increase its workforce to 3,000 employees.

In 2010, 34.2% of Kia’s total production of 2.1 million units, which accounts for 729,000 cars, were manufactured outside of South Korea.

Due to the increased demand and the expanding operations in the Slovak Republic and the US means that this number is about to increase substantially.

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U.S. automotive sales Ford, Chevrolet, Toyota, Honda, Dodge and Nissan have all made it, and 2011 is expected to be Hyundai’s year.

In the realm of U.S. automotive sales, 8% is a magic number. When an automaker hits 8%, they know they’ve become one of the big guns. Ford, Chevrolet, Toyota, Honda, Dodge and Nissan have all made it, and 2011 is expected to be Hyundai’s year.

So sayeth market research firm Polk, and I’m tempted to agree. Hyundai and its partner-brand / internal rival Kia have steadily been evolving into truly world-class carmakers. They’re keenly priced, inoffensive to look at and comprehensively covered quality-wise – everything the vast majority of new car buyers want in this day and age.

Add to that the Little Automaker That Could is experiencing faster market growth than any other offshore-based company selling vehicles in the U.S.; topping the likes of Honda, Toyota and Nissan.

According to Polk, the biggest hurdles facing the South Korean carmaker are the need to add a pickup / ute to its range (see the Toyota Tundra and Honda Ridgeline for more on why this could be a problem) and a lack of focus in its brand image. After all, how does one derive a singular vision out of a range that includes at one end the US$12,445 Accent and at the other the US$58,900 Equus? It’s just not possible.

Still, it’ll be interesting to see how Hyundai’s market share will evolve in the future. With the U.S. automakers finally cleaning up their game and a dearth of low-cost imports on the horizon from China, there’s sure to be some exciting years ahead.

Source: Polk

General Motors's upcoming 2013 Chevrolet Malibu Photos

General Motors is quite serious about selling its upcoming 2013 Chevrolet Malibu on a global scale. So serious, in fact, that the Detroit automaker is making plans to built the mid-size model on several continents. Today, GM revealed that will build and sell the redesigned Malibu sedan in Korea. We’ll remind you that earlier this year, GM Korea announced it is replacing the Daewoo nameplate with the Chevrolet brand for the local market.

Surprisingly, the first country to get the new Malibu won’t be the States, but South Korea with production set to begin in Bupyeong, Korea this fall, followed by Jingjiao, China, at the end of 2011 and then Fairfax, Kansas and Detroit-Hamtramck, in the U.S., in early 2012.

“Adding Korea as a key sales market for the new Malibu further increases the brand’s global presence and continues our growth path while increasing our car offerings to consumers in Korea,” said Russ Clark, Chevrolet Product Director.

GM also said that there’s growing interest for the Malibu in Korea, despite the fact that the midsize sedan has never been officially sold in the country. The Detroit automaker said that members of Malibu-related Internet clubs total about 30,000 in South Korea, despite the fact that the midsize sedan has never been officially sold in the country. However, this shouldn’t come as a surprise for those with some knowledge of the local car culture as there are myriads of dedicated online clubs for all models.

The new Malibu received its world premiere at the New York and Shanghai auto shows last week. It will be sold in nearly 100 markets on six continents, with each region getting specific engine choices. Up until now, we know that North America will get a 2.5-liter four-cylinder with 190HP+ and a 2.4-liter ECO unit with the eAssist system delivering 180HP, while China will receive 2.0-liter and 2.4-liter naturally aspirated fours, and a 1.6-liter turbocharged engine.

In addition to the gasoline range, the European market version of the Malibu is expected to be offered with several diesel options as well.

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