Based on last year's two million market, this will mean catapulting past the likes of Nissan, BMW and Audi. It will also mean that Hyundai and Kia combined will be ahead of Vauxhall and only just behind current number one Ford.

They are already the fastest-growing brands on the car market. Kia expects to be selling 100,000 a year by 2020, up from an expected 70,000 this year and Hyundai UK boss Tony Whitehorn also expects to hit six figures in that time frame, up from around 75,000 this year.

This year Kia has just had its best ever first quarter in the UK since the scrappage years, selling 19,204 vehicles, up from 17,211 in the first three months of last year, while Hyundai, at 20,000 was ahead by 12.5% over 2012.

The only thing holding both brands back is a shortage of cars. Their factories around the world cannot cope with global demand.

Whitehorn said: ‘We have reached a point where demand is ahead of our global production capacity which in the current climate is not a bad place to be.

‘The company is looking at the capacity issues and in the meantime we will concentrate on the brand image. In a very short space of time, over the past four to five years, we have gone from a budget brand to mainstream. Our networks, marketing and the way we deal with customers has to reflect this.

‘We are finding that customers' expectations from us are increasing all the time and so we have to manage this ready for the next sales push in 2015.’

To improve the “brand experience” Hyundai is making its servicing schedules easier to understand and more transparent in pricing and providing extended five-year servicing plans that are fully transferable to a new owner, even on older vehicles.

Aftersales director Nick Tunnell said: ‘We are raising standards at dealerships including workshops and back-end facilities. Our technicians our now highly trained and need to work in an environment that reflects this and the technology in our vehicles.’

Hyundai currently has 153 UK dealers and is looking to increase this to 165 by the end of the year. Tunnell said: ‘We have a queue of people wanting to join the network because unlike a number of manufacturers, our sales are growing.’

Whitehorn added that as Hyundai grows, the brand needs larger, regional dealer groups rather than the smaller “owner-drivers” of the past.

‘The small, family-owned dealerships still have their place but in metropolitan areas we need businesses that can handle a throughput of 500 cars a year,’ he said