page_title: Hyundai Motor Company
section_title: Motorsport
hierarchical_section_title: Hyundai Motor Company / Motorsport
caption_attribution_description: English: Hyundai i20 WRC at Mondial de l'Automobile Paris 2012
context_page_description: The Hyundai Motor Company, commonly known as Hyundai Motors, is a South Korean multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Seoul. Hyundai Motor Company was founded in 1967 and, along with its 32.8 percent owned subsidiary, Kia Motors, and its 100 percent owned luxury subsidiary, Genesis Motor, and electric vehicle subsidiary, Ioniq, altogether comprise the Hyundai Motor Group.
  Hyundai operates the world's largest integrated automobile manufacturing facility in Ulsan, South Korea which has an annual production capacity of 1.6 million units. The company employs about 75,000 people worldwide. Hyundai vehicles are sold in 193 countries through some 5,000 dealerships and showrooms.
context_section_description: Hyundai entered motorsport by competing in the F2 class of the World Rally Championship in 1998 and 1999. In September 1999, Hyundai unveiled the Accent WRC, a World Rally Car based on the Hyundai Accent. The Hyundai World Rally Team debuted the car at the 2000 Swedish Rally and achieved their first top-ten result at that year's Rally Argentina, when Alister McRae and Kenneth Eriksson finished seventh and eighth, respectively. Eriksson later drove the car to fifth place in New Zealand and fourth in Australia. In 2001, Hyundai debuted a new evolution of the Accent WRC, which was intended to improve reliability, but the performance of the car was still not good enough to challenge the four big teams (Ford, Mitsubishi, Peugeot and Subaru). However, at the season-ending Rally GB, the team achieved their best result with McRae finishing fourth and Eriksson sixth.
  For the 2002 season, Hyundai hired the four-time world champion Juha Kankkunen, along with Freddy Loix and Armin Schwarz. Kankkunen's fifth place in New Zealand was the team's best result, but they managed to edge out Škoda and Mitsubishi by one point in the battle for fourth place in the manufacturers' world championship. In September 2003, after a season hampered by budget constraints, Hyundai announced withdrawal from the WRC and planned to return in 2006, which did not happen.
  In 2006, following the announcement that Korea was scheduled to earn a Formula One Grand Prix, Hyundai planned to enter the sport. The Korean Grand Prix was first held in 2010, but Hyundai have not entered the championship. Hyundai announced they would be revealing their future rally plans at the 2011 Chicago Auto Show, on February 9. The current plans for rallying are focused around the newest Hyundai release, the Veloster. In September 2012 Hyundai announced that they were due to start the WRC with a rally model of its i20 to rival the likes of the Ford Fiesta, the Citroen DS3 and the Mini Countryman.
   Hyundai i20 WRC 
  The Hyundai i20 WRC is a World Rally Car built by Hyundai for use in the 2014 World Rally Championship. It is based on the Hyundai i20 subcompact car, and was unveiled at the 2012 Paris Motor Show. The launch of the i20 marks Hyundai's return to the World Rally Championship after a ten-year absence. The car is scheduled to make its first competitive appearance at the 2014 Rallye Monte Carlo, but may compete during the 2013 season to aid development.
  The car will be operated by Hyundai's performance division, Hyundai Motorsport from a base in Frankfurt, Germany.
caption: Hyundai i20 WRC
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