Hyundai auto sales top in Turkish market

With sales nearly doubling from last year, Hyundai Motor Co. became Turkey's largest carmaker by sales during the first half of the year.
This is the first time a Korean carmaker has taken the largest market share of an overseas market.

According to industry data, Hyundai sold 29,855 vehicles in Turkey during the first half of the year to account for 15.7 percent of Turkey's auto market.

With Hyundai's rise, the French carmaker Renault S.A. has been pushed off the top spot for the first time in 11 years. Renault's share of the Turkish market for the first six months of the year was recorded at 15.6 percent.

"There were times when the company held the largest monthly market share in overseas markets, but for longer periods. Turkey is the first overseas market where Hyundai came top," a Hyundai official said.

"The Turkish government's stimulus measures have boosted sales, especially in the smaller segments, which has been to our benefit as we have a strong, small car lineup."

During the first seven months of the year, Hyundai's sales in Turkey jumped 80 percent from the same period last year to come in at about 32,700 units.

The subcompact car Verna accounted for about 60 percent of the total. The car is produced at the Korean carmaker's plant in Turkey which opened in 1997.

Although still far from being the largest carmaker, this year has also seen Hyundai expand its presence in other markets.

Sales in China have been increasing rapidly this year. For most of the year so far, Hyundai's monthly sales in China jumped by more than 70 percent from last year and last month saw the carmakers sales in China increase by more than 170 percent compared to July 2008. The exceptions were January and June when the year-on-year increase rates were recorded respectively at 17 percent and 37.4 percent.

Having sold about 300,000 units in China during the seven months of the year, the company has already exceeded last year's total of about 295,000 units by 2.1 percent.

Hyundai's U.S. market share for the Jan.-to-July period rose by about 1.1 percentage points despite sales dropping by about 8 percent due to its competitors suffering larger declines.

In Europe, Hyundai's first half sales increased by the second highest rate, pushing up sales to over 154,000 units and market share to 2.2 percent.

Hyundai's first six months sales in the region jumped 19.5 percent, while Renault's Dacia brand saw its sales almost double from the same period last year.

During the same period last year, Hyundai sold about 130,000 units in Europe, giving the company 1.7 percent share of the market.