Hyundai scrambling to keep U.S. market share but lacks inventory

Hyundai owns five percent of the U.S. retail market share, but it's trying to maintain that number with razor-thin inventory levels. According to The Detroit Free Press, the situation has forced the automaker to cut back on fleet sales and pump out every vehicle it can from its Alabama assembly plant, which is prepping a third shift in the fall.

How constrained is Hyundai's vehicle supply? Looking at the traditional measure of dealer inventory in "days supply," Hyundai tracks absurdly low, at just 25-27 days, or less than one month's supply of vehicles, according to the report. The new 2012 Azera has just 12 days inventory available. The Freep says that despite its five-percent share, for every 1,000 vehicles sitting on all dealer lots across the U.S., only 25 are Hyundais. Yet the company still expects to sell 700,000 units this year, some 100,000 more than it did in 2011.

John Krafcik, Hyundai Motor America's president and CEO, has said consistently that despite rumors of a second U.S. assembly plant, his company has no current plans to build one. Hyundai's South Korean parent has capped global production this year to focus on quality.

"We're still the leanest company in the industry," Krafcik tells the newspaper.