Hyundai Motor U.S. sales top 9m mark

Hyundai Motor Co. said Sunday that its combined sales in the United States surpassed the 9 million unit mark at the end of June, 28 years after it started selling cars in the country.

Between 1986 and June this year, South Korea’s largest carmaker had sold a total of 9,028,420 vehicles in the U.S., the company said. It said it expects to reach the 10 million mark in the second half of next year.

Hyundai Motor’s best-selling car in the U.S. was the Sonata midsize sedan, whose sales reached 2,221,324 units, followed by the Elantra compact with 2.22 million and the Excel, the company’s first sedan sold in the U.S., with 1.14 million. It also sold 1.09 million units of the Santa Fe sport utility vehicle and 1.02 million units of the Accent compact.

Hyundai Motor has been producing the Sonata and Elantra at its plant in the U.S. state of Alabama since 2005, while its sister company Kia Motors Corp. has been manufacturing cars at its plant in Georgia.

“Sales (of Hyundai cars) have been steadily increasing (in the U.S.),” said an official at Hyundai Motor. “If we can maintain a stable supply of cars, our sales may top the 10 million mark earlier than expected.”

Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors are flagship units of Hyundai Motor Group, the world’s fifth-largest automotive conglomerate. (Yonhap)