A car called the Excel is to go on sale in the United States for the first time Thursday morning. It is an unremarkable looking vehicle, resembling many of the small, efficient Japanese cars that have wrested a large share of the market from the domestic Big Three.
The Excel, though, is not from Japan. It is being imported from Korea, where its manufacturer, the Hyundai Corporation, is one of the nation's leading manufacturing groups. The Hyundai Excel is the first of what could be a torrent of small cars made in Korea and other Asian countries headed for American shores.
The 1970's saw the rise of the Japanese, aided by two gasoline supply scares that shifted consumer demand to small cars with high fuel economy. Last year imports, the vast majority of them Japanese, claimed 23.8 percent of the American car market.
Many Korean-made cars will arrive here bearing familiar domestic labels, as the American auto companies join industries such as shoes, textiles and consumer electronics in shifting production to developing nations to take advantage of low-cost labor. According to the United Automobile Workers union, wages and benefits for Korean auto workers average $2.16 an hour, compared with about $13 an hour in Japan and over $20 an hour in the United States.
In addition, Ford has an affiliate in Taiwan, Ford Lio Ho, that it says will produce a small car for sale in Canada within the next few years. The American Motors Corporation is assembling Jeep models with a Chinese partner in Peking, and A.M.C. officials are saying those vehicles may be shipped to the United States.
Hyundai clearly plans to use its labor cost advantage to help establish the brand name, pricing its bottom-of-the-line model at $4,995. But only 20 percent of its first-year sales will be of these stripped-down models. Most of the cars are expected to sell in the $5,500 to $6,500 range, still less than most comparably equipped Japanese or domestic models cost. And the increase in the value of the yen is putting upward pressure on Japanese car prices in this country.
Unlike the Yugo, an even lower priced Yugoslavian-made car that made its debut in the American market in the fall, and has gotten some unfavorable reviews for its features and quality, the Hyundai Excel has been glowingly praised by the automotive press.
Hyundai sales will be limited by the capacity of its sole assembly plant to 100,000 shipments in the first year, but most auto analysts expect the cars to be sold as fast as they arrive. The new brand, which is not subject to any import restraints, was given an unintended boost by the Japanese Government, which extended restraints on exports by that country's car producers for another year.
Most analysts and auto executives here expect the third world imports to eventually become an important factor in the American car market. Since demand is not expected to grow anywhere as quickly as supply, some existing producers are likely to lose market share, and possibly go out of business.
Hyundai officials say they have plans to bring in other, more expensive, car models into the American market if the Excel is successful.
Michael Luckey, an analyst with Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc., said, ''They're talking about 5 percent of the market by 1990.'' Five percent of an 11 million car market would be 550,000 units, or about what the No. 2 importer, the Nissan Motor Company, sold last year. The Toyota Motor Corporation is No. 1.
One reason Hyundai has been able to beat its Korean competitors to the American market is its ties to the Mitsubishi Motors Corporation of Japan. Mitsubishi provided the technology for the Excel's front-wheel-drive engine and transmission. In return, Mitsubishi will sell 30,000 of the 100,000 Excels bound for America.