Hyundai sales up 15%

MANILA, Philippines - Vehicle sales of Hyundai Asia Resources Inc. (HARI) from January to September this year went up 15 percent from a year ago mainly due to the increase in purchases of passenger cars (PC).

In a statement yesterday, HARI said it sold 17,156 units as of end-September compared to the 14,883 units sold in the same period last year.

HARI attributed the positive performance to its impressive sales of PC models which grew 48 percent to 10,652 units versus the 7,217 units sold in the same period last year.

Sales gains in the PC segment were seen in the following models: Accent, Elantra, i10 and the newly launched Eon.

HARI, however, saw a 15 percent drop in the light commercial vehicle (LCV) sales as of end-September to 6,504 units from 7,666 units in the comparable period last year.

For the month of September alone though, HARI’s car sales dropped 12 percent to 1,421 units compared to the 1,612 units in the same month last year.

The lower sales in September was due to global supply limitations which affected PC sales.

Total PC sales fell 27 percent to 712 units in September from a year ago.

LCV sales, however, went up 11 percent to 709 units from last year.

Ma. Fe Perez-Agudo, HARI president and chief executive officer said the year-to-date sales performance shows the Hyundai brand remains resilient.

“We are all geared to respond to public demand for our models with the onset of the holiday season,” she said further.