Hyundai Motor America on March 2 announced February sales of 34,004 units, up 11 percent vs. February 2009 and the same amount over January of this year. This marks the 14th consecutive month of year-over-year retail market share gains for Hyundai and its best retail share performance since the government's "Cash-for-Clunkers" program in August 2009.
"Even though February is the shortest month of the year, the list of highlights for Hyundai is long," said Dave Zuchowski, Hyundai Motor America's vice president of national sales. "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. For the Hyundai brand as a whole, consumer retail sales were up 21 percent while incentive spending was down more than 30 percent. We're excited about the momentum we're carrying into March."
Zuchowski explained that February was a strong month for both Hyundai and the industry especially taking into account the adverse weather conditions in much of the country.
"While all of our sales regions showed year-over-year retail increases, bad weather definitely limited car shopping in our Eastern and Central regions, which accounts for about half our overall volume," he added." "In our Southern, South Central and Western regions, we saw retail sales increases of 39, 50 and 28 percent, respectively, which bodes well for a strong spring selling season for Hyundai and the entire industry."
In addition to the early success of Sonata and Tucson, the freshened Santa Fe with a 52 percent increase, Genesis with a 39 percent increase, and Accent with a 22 percent rise, all registered significant growth over the same period one year ago.
CARLINE FEB/2010 FEB/2009 CY/2010 CY/2009 ------- -------- -------- ------- ------- ACCENT 5,308 4,334 11,055 7,894 ------ ----- ----- ------ ----- SONATA 7,506 4,743 12,812 13,251 ------ ----- ----- ------ ------ ELANTRA 7,966 8,978 15,656 12,285 ------- ----- ----- ------ ------ TIBURON 0 629 0 1,019 ------- --- --- --- ----- SANTA FE 7,964 5,223 15,168 10,247 -------- ----- ----- ------ ------ AZERA 204 322 473 616 ----- --- --- --- --- TUCSON 2,741 1,358 4,957 2,332 ------ ----- ----- ----- ----- ENTOURAGE 0 2,490 0 2,712 --------- --- ----- --- ----- VERACRUZ 553 1,281 954 2,458 -------- --- ----- --- ----- GENESIS 1,762 1,263 3,432 2,319 ------- ----- ----- ----- ----- TOTAL 34,004 30,621 64,507 55,133 ----- ------ ------ ------ ------
