LOS ANGELES -- Hyundai Motor America has fired CEO Dave Zuchowski for failing to meet internal sales objectives, multiple sources familiar with the situation told Automotive News.
The decision is effective immediately. Jerry Flannery, 59, general counsel and an executive vice president, will be the interim CEO until a successor is chosen. Hyundai said it will begin its search immediately.
Hyundai’s dealer body was informed Tuesday night of the decision.
“We appreciate Dave’s decade of service to Hyundai, especially his leadership as president and CEO, which has made us a stronger organization,” Flannery said in a statement. “I look forward to working closely with our dealers, affiliates, senior management and our talented and hard-working employees across the country to realize Hyundai’s full potential.”
Zuchowski, 58, who joined Hyundai as U.S. sales chief in 2007 and was widely respected in the dealer body, took the CEO position at the start of 2014, succeeding John Krafcik, just as Hyundai’s growth was beginning to slow.
While the brand survived and even thrived early in his tenure as sales boss following the Great Recession, it struggled to maintain its pace as falling gasoline prices led the U.S. market to shift away from Hyundai’s bread-and-butter small cars and toward crossovers and SUVs, segments where the brand is weak or nonexistent and where supply shortages have dented sales.
Hyundai’s U.S. sales through November were up 1.3 percent to 707,485 units, excluding the new Genesis luxury brand, which recorded 1,306 units. U.S. sales for the Hyundai make, including models that now fall under the Genesis umbrella, hit a record in 2015 of 761,710 units, up 5 percent from the previous year, but the growth rates are down from double-digit growth in 2010 and 2011.
Zuchowski, a 36-year veteran of the auto industry, joined Hyundai from Mazda North America, where he was vice president of sales and field operations.
Zuchowski’s ultimate successor will oversee the continued development of Genesis in the U.S. and Hyundai’s aggressive move into alternative-fuel vehicles in the U.S., including the launch of its Ioniq sub-brand. Hyundai plans to release 14 new alternative-fuel models in the U.S. by 2020.
