Beijing Hyundai sells 41,881 cars in Mar, up 70%

Shanghai, April 3 (Gasgoo.com) Beijing Hyundai said yesterday that its sales in the Chinese market reached 41,881 units last month, a 70% increase from a year earlier and a record high by Hyundai Motor since its entry into China in 2002, said sina.com today.

In addition, Beijing Hyundai saw its first quarter sales grow by 48.8% year on year to 109,072 units, also a new high in seven years. Earlier this year, the joint venture was ranked No. 4 among China's passenger car makers in terms of sales and market share from last year's No. 7.

The Chinese government has halved the sales tax to 5% on sub-1.6L cars and this favorable policy, among other newly released incentives, has helped boost the auto sales of Beijing Hyundai, whose major vehicle products such as Elantra/Yuedong and Accent models are equipped with engines below 1.6 liters.

Mid-size sedans are the heavyweight products of Beijing Hyundai. The Elantra+Yuedong "dream team" of Beijing Hyundai has become the top seller of China's 2008 mid-size cars, and last month their sales topped 30,000 units to capture 13% market share.

The company's hot-selling Yuedong model was derived from the Elantra to meet the Chinese needs, and then the old Elantra had price cuts to boost sales. Hyundai Motor aims to sell over 360,000 vehicles in China this year, a 23% rise from last year's.