MADRAS, India, June 3 (Reuters) - Hyundai Motor India Ltd, the country's second-biggest carmaker, said on Monday its sales dipped 0.7 percent in May as demand was hit by political and economic uncertainty.
The wholly owned subsidiary of South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co said it sold 8,078 cars, down from 8,134 a year earlier but up 7.3 percent from 7,529 the previous month.
Hyundai makes the popular 1.0 litre Santro hatchback and the Accent and Sonata sedans at its $614-million car plant on the outskirts of Madras.
"There has been negligible growth in domestic demand," Hyundai Motor India's executive director, marketing and sales, B.G. Lee, said in a statement.
"We are planning an increased thrust on exports in line with our long-term plans to make exports a sizeable percentage of our sales from India."
In the past financial year to March, Hyundai's sales in India rose 7.4 percent to 93,244 cars, outpacing the scant 0.5 percent growth in the overall market.
But sales in recent months have been hit by religious bloodletting in one of the country's most industrialised states, Gujarat, a sluggish economy weighed down by slowing growth in the key software services sector and fears of a war with neighbouring Pakistan.
In the January to May period, Hyundai sold 32,461 Santros, 8,930 Accent sedans and 1,276 of its Sonata luxury sedans.
In March, Hyundai launched a 1.1 litre version of the Santro and also applied to the Indian government to import a range of car and truck models for sale in India.
India's new car market, dominated by the smaller and cheaper hatchbacks, is estimated at nearly 600,000 units a year. ($1 = 49.04 Indian rupees)