Hyundai Sells Over 200,000 Sonata Sedans in North America this Year, Sets New Record

The well received new Sonata is spearheading Hyundai's North American sales efforts this year, with the South Korean automaker selling more than 200,000 examples of the mid-size sedan in the U.S. and Canada in 2010, setting a new sales record. More importantly, the four-door saloon helped the company deliver more than 530,000 vehicles in the United States and over 110,000 in Canada for the first time ever.

"Sonata has delivered some pretty incredible results for us this year," says John Krafcik, Hyundai Motor America president and CEO. "Sonata is the Hyundai brand and it's appropriate that it has led our best year ever. Sonata's innovation has reset the most hotly contested, largest segment in the U.S. car market, with Sonata delivering more year-over-year retail sales growth – about 90,000 units – than any other car in the entire industry."

Read more »

2011 Hyundai i40: European Market Sonata Officially Announced

Hyundai has come out with an official announcement on its new D-segment car for Europe, about a week after the first illustrations of the i40 made their way onto the web. The i40, which was known by the codename ‘VF’ during development, is essentially the European market version of the North American and Korean Sonata, and will compete against cars like Ford Mondeo, VW Passat and Citroen C5.

The new i40 will make its world premiere in estate form at the upcoming Geneva Salon in March 2011, with a four door sedan model following later in the same year. It was designed at Hyundai’s European R&D facilities in Rüsselsheim, Germany, and according to the South Korean firm, it is the company’s first D-segment model to be specifically developed for the European market.

Hyundai claims that the i40 will further boost European consumer perception of the brand to "a more aspirational position" thanks to the vehicle's design, quality, performance and technical features.

Read more »

Hyundai Drops Pricing on New Sonata Hybrid, Starts from $26,545

Hyundai's all-new 2011 Sonata Hybrid sedan will carry a starting price of $25,795 plus a $750 fee for freight charges for a total of $26,545 when it arrives in the firm's dealerships in early January. The most fuel efficient version of the South Korean maker's mid-size sedan will comes in just two flavors, with the next version being the tech-feature-packed Premium model priced at $30,795, or $31,545 if you add the freight charge.

Both variants deliver 40-mpg on the highway and 35 mpg in the city, with a 37 mpg combined rating from the EPA. Hyundai's first hybrid in the States features a proprietary parallel hybrid drive system, which utilizes a 169HP 2.4-liter Theta II (operating on an Atkinson Cycle) linked to a 6-speed automatic transmission, a 30kW (151 lb-ft) electric motor and a lithium polymer batteries.

Read more »