Sales of Hyundai's new Santa Fe top 10,000 units for 2nd month

All News 09:26 April 29, 2018

SEOUL, April 29 (Yonhap) -- Hyundai Motor Co.'s fully revamped SUV, the all-new Santa Fe, has sold over 10,000 units here, becoming the No. 1 pick for local consumers for the second straight month, industry data showed Sunday.

According to the data, 10,302 new Santa Fes were sold here through Thursday this month following the previous month's sales of 11,619 units.

Industry sources expect the all-new Santa Fe to sell over 100,000 units this year should the current pace be maintained.

In February, Hyundai Motor, the country's top automaker, unveiled the SUV aiming to sell 90,000 units in the domestic market this year by capitalizing on rising demand for recreational vehicles.

The carmaker has been in a rush to upgrade its SUV lineup to bolster sales not only at home but in key overseas markets like the United States.

On the overseas front, Hyundai said it plans to launch the top-selling SUV in the U.S. before the summer holidays begin to take advantage of booming local demand for SUVs.

Hyundai suffered an 11.5 percent on-year decline in U.S. sales last year to 685,555 vehicles due to a lack of new models, particularly SUVs. Hyundai has the Santa Fe, Kona and Tucson SUVs in its sedan-heavy lineup. In 2018, it aims to sell 4.68 million vehicles with overseas sales of 3.97 million units, slightly higher than the 4.51 million units sold the previous year.

The all-new Santa Fe's engines, including a 2.0-liter diesel, a 2.2-liter diesel and a 2.0-liter gasoline turbo engine, are all mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission. The new Santa Fe is equipped with a full-time HTRAC all-wheel drive system, and the company's rack-mounted, motor-driven power steering is touted for giving very good feedback of the road to drivers, as well as precise and well-weighted handling.