Sonata helps boost Hyundai's U.S. sales

Hyundai Motor's sales in the U.S. surged 30 percent on-year in April thanks to the popularity of the Sonata YF mid-sized sedan. According to a report released Monday, Hyundai sold a total of 44,023 cars in the U.S. last month, including 18,536 units of the newest version of the Sonata.

The Honda Accord was the best-selling car in the mid-sized sedan segment in the U.S. last month with 29,311 units, followed by the Toyota Camry with 27,914 units. Although the Sonata was still far behind the two market leaders, it did manage to overtake the Nissan Altima (14,762 units sold) to break into the top three in the segment among Asian automakers.

Hyundai posted the third-highest growth rate, trailing Subaru (48 percent with 23,198 units) and Volkswagen (39 percent with 32,580 units).

Kia Motors sold 30,036 cars in the U.S. in April, up 17 percent from a year ago, which is slightly less than the market's average of 20 percent. The combined market share of Hyundai and Kia inched up 0.2 percentage points from a year ago to 7.5 percent, driving Nissan out of the number six spot.  

In the large-sized sedan segment, Hyundai has been unable to boost its sales. The carmaker managed to sell only 237 units of the Azera (the Grandeur in Korea), 2,265 of the Genesis, and 550 of the Veracruz. In contrast, Volkswagen, which performed worse than Kia last year, outsold Kia by 2,500 units in April.

GM was the sales leader in the market, selling 183,614 cars, up 7 percent from April 2009. Ford came in second with 167,283 cars, an increase of 25 percent, followed by Toyota with 157,439 cars, up 24 percent.

Honda sold 113,697 vehicles in the month, an increase of just 13 percent. But the comparatively smaller increase can be attributed to the Japanese carmaker's focus on sound management rather than overseas sales. Despite the global economic crisis and unfavorable exchange rates, its operating profit for fiscal year 2009 which ended March 2010 soared a whopping 92 percent on-year to 363.8 billion yen.

Chrysler posted double-digit growth for the first time in five years as its sales rose 25 percent to 95,703 units in April.