Hyundai Thanh Cong, a Vietnam-Korea joint venture that assembles Hyundai vehicles in Vietnam, held a ceremony last Friday to mark the first shipments of Vietnam-made Hyundai cars to Mexico and Australia, part of a plan to export 15,280 units in 2026.

In a statement, Hyundai Thanh Cong, a joint venture between South Korea’s Hyundai and Vietnam’s Thanh Cong, said the 2026 total would comprise 10,160 complete vehicles and 5,120 component kits. The shipping destinations are Mexico, Australia, and Taiwan.

The shipments to Mexico and Australia are the first time cars made in Vietnam have reached those two markets, extending its exports beyond Asia to the Americas and Oceania, Hyundai Thanh Cong noted.

The Creta compact SUV is the first model being exported to Mexico and Australia, to be followed by the Tucson Hybrid and Santa Fe Hybrid later in 2026. The Creta would be its most-exported model this year, Hyundai Thanh Cong said without giving a specific figure.

Prior to Australia and Mexico, Hyundai Thanh Cong exported cars to Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Kazakhstan in 2025, following earlier exports to South Korea, Peru, and the Philippines between 2018 and 2023.

For 2027 to 2029, Hyundai Thanh Cong plans to add markets in the Middle East, Africa, Central and South America, and Russia.

The export push comes as Hyundai’s sales in Vietnam declined amid the shift to electric vehicles (EV). Domestic sales of Hyundai vehicles in Vietnam rose from 70,518 units in 2021 to 81,582 in 2022, the brand’s highest annual total in recent years, before falling each year since, to 67,450 in 2023, 67,168 in 2024 and 53,229 in 2025. In the first seven months of 2026, the figure reached 28,612 units.

Nguyen Minh Son, director of the Hyundai Thanh Cong plant, said the exports reflected years of building production capability and meeting the technical and quality standards of foreign markets.

Hyundai Thanh Cong said its two plants in Vietnam had produced 569,951 vehicles between 2009 and 2026.

Vietnam’s VinFast ships over 5,000 EVs to Europe, Southeast Asia in 2 days