Hyundai sales from US plant below target

Hyundai Motor Co. won't meet its target to sell 300,000 vehicles from its Alabama plant this year due to sluggish demand in the U.S. due to the mortgage crisis, the company said Tuesday.

Hyundai Motor sold 237,000 vehicles from the plant through the end of November and expects sales for the year to reach about 250,000.

Hyundai Motor, the world's sixth largest carmaker by sales, is now setting a target of 300,000 units sold from the Alabama plant for next year. It expects the 2008 sales to be boosted by a redesign of its Sonata Sedan.

Jake Jang, a Hyundai Motor spokesman, said the Alabama plant will begin making an upgraded version of the Sonata model in January and that it will be available for sale in the United States in February.

The company will also start exporting its premium Genesis sedan to the world's largest automobile market in the first half of next year, Jang said.