Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea’s biggest automaker, has been focusing on expanding its customer base since it re-entered the Japanese auto market in February last year rather than expanding sales in what appears to be a change in strategy to avoid another retreat from the market.

Hyundai Motor announced Thursday at the Daikanyama T-Site in Tokyo that it signed a business agreement with local lifestyle content company Culture Convenience Club Co. (CCC) to discover and cooperate on mobility services. CCC is known for operating Tsutaya, a lifestyle bookstore with about 70 million members in Japan, Malaysia and China. It is now considered one of the companies with the most lifestyle-related data.

By partnering with CCC, Hyundai Motor gained lifestyle data to target the Japanese market. Tsutaya is expanding beyond Japan into Korea and other parts of Asia. Hyundai Motor, which has mobility-related data, will partner with CCC to develop new mobility services, data-driven marketing and a global experience platform.

To this end, Hyundai Motor will operate its ride-sharing service Motion at CCC’s lifestyle commercial facility, Daikanyama T-Site, in Tokyo. The automaker will also work on data clustering and algorithm creation to satisfy individual tastes and demands as new data-based businesses. In addition, the two companies plan to build an electric vehicle experience platform where customers around the world can experience EVs.

“The collaboration between a mobility company and a content company will create new possibilities.” said Chang Jae-hoon, chief executive officer of Hyundai Motor.

In the one year and four months since its re-entry into Japan, only 682 Hyundai Motor vehicles have been sold in the country, including zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) like Ioniq 5 EV and hydrogen-powered Nexo. That compares with 2,574 units sold in 2004. But more important than the numbers is the fact that Hyundai Motor is knocking on the door of the Japanese market with a completely new approach to sales and marketing, one that does not rely on Hallyu stars.

“Business models such as ZEVs and dealerless online sales are something Hyundai Motor hasn’t done anywhere else in the world,” said Yoo Won-ha, vice president of the company.

In the second half of the year, Hyundai Motor will add the Kona Electric, a small electric sport utility vehicle (SUV), to its sales lineup.

By Lee Yu-sup and Choi Jieun

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