USA: Hyundai sales soar in February 2010

Hyundai Motor America recently announced an 11 percent increase in sales for the past month.

Hyundai’s bestseller last month was the facelifted Santa Fe SUV which recorded sales of of 7.964 units, up 52 percent from 5.223 units sold in February last year. Now that’s quite a feat considering the recent economic global condition.

Along new Sonata sedan, the Santa Fe, of course is Hyundai’s best bet in the United States since it is the first Hyundai car to be specifically designed for the US market. Production exerted extra effort for this crossover SUV, putting in years of research and thousands of consumer interviews. Hyundai Santa Fe boasts of its graceful design coupled with automotive power and passenger safety.

The other best-selling lines were the 2011 Sonata and 2010 Tucson, which respectively sold 2763 and 1383 more units than last year.

The US-built Sonata is one of Hyundai’s newest models. It was designed and engineered in Hyundai’s Southern California Design Center after four years of development. It is popular for its sleek design that makes it look more like a sports car than a regular sedan. It also boasts of its fuel efficient 4 cylinder 2.4L GDI engine. Apparently, the US market responded well in sales.

Dave Zuchowski, vice president for Hyundai Motors in the United States, is quite pleased. He said, “Our sales gains in February were driven by strong consumer response to new products like the Tucson, which was up 102 percent, and the all-new U.S.-built Sonata, which was just launched this month and has already driven a 58 percent sales increase.”

Riding on this successful month, Zuchowski looks forward to make another killing in March. He said, “We’re excited about the momentum we’re carrying into March.”

February was supposed to be a slow month because it is the shortest month of the year and, according to Zuchowski, adverse weather conditions throughout the country affected car sales. He explained, “… bad weather definitely limited car shopping in our Eastern and Central regions, which accounts for about half our overall volume.”

And yet, Hyundai did quite well. The vice president added, “In the Southern, South Central and Western regions, Hyundai saw retail sales increases of 39, 50 and 28 percent, respectively, which bodes well for a strong spring selling season for the company and the entire industry.”

According to him, Hyundai, as a whole increased in retail sales by up to 21 percent while incentive spending was down more than 30 percent…

Two other models that performed quite well on a year-to-year sales basis are the Genesis, which records a 39 percent increase in sales, and sub-compact Accent with a 22 percent increase.

Overall, Hyundai sold 34.004 units in February 2010 in the United States or an 11 percent sales improvement from February 2009. This is the company’s best retail share performance since August 2009 when the US government initiated its “Cash-for-Clunkers” program.

Hyundai February 2010 sales table: