Last month, Hyundai sold more than 60.000 new cars in China…

When someone asked Takanobu Ito, the CEO of Honda, what carmaker does he see as a major threat to them, he answered Hyundai. And Honda isn’t the only Japanese car manufacturer that sees Hyundai as a future threat, there are also others, such as Toyota and Nissan that claim the same.

No wonders why everyone points out at Hyundai Motor Company. The Korean largest carmaker has seen a tremendous growth over the past couple of years, while many other automakers have been looking at double-digit shortfalls. Its global sales performance have seen substantial improvements with sales increasing sharply in the key markets such as US, Europe and China.

Lately, Hyundai has been particularly successful in China market, where it has achieved record-high sales for the third consecutive month in a row. Automotive media from China reported earlier today that Hyundai saw its car sales rise 176 percent from a year earlier, to a record high monthly figure of 60.870 units!

The best selling Hyundai model last month was a China-built Hyundai Elantra Yuedong with sales of 24.094 units. It was followed by anoher Elantra (note: Hyundai sells two different Elantra models in China) with 16.282 units sold. Accent and Tucson SUV were third and fourth best selling Hyundai models with 8.006 and 5.243 units sold, respectively.

September was the very first full sales month for the all-new Hyundai i30 hatch and so far, the model has posted really strong sales. Hyundai dealers in China sold 3.223 units of i30 in September 2009.

In the first nine months of the fiscal year, Hyundai sold 412.399 cars, up 88 percent compared to last year. As evident from the stats, the Korean carmaker is very well on the track to achieve its China sales goal of 500.000 units in 2009.

To achieve the goal, Hyundai plans to expand its China car line-up with new models, including a i10 mini-car that will rival popular mini-cars from China carmakers. While new car sales in China may slow down next year, Hyundai plans to take on slumping demand with the launch of new Tucson ix and YF Sonata sedan.

Based on the very first media reports, Hyundai has two winning vehicles on their hands. They are both expected to become the best selling vehicles in the carmaker’s line-up at home and abroad.

Earlier this year, Hyundai also announced it will soon start building already its third China manufacturing plant, which is expected to increase its annual production capacity to more than 600.000 new cars!