Beijing Hyundai Motor, the Chinese JV of Hyundai and Beijing Automotive Group, see March sales surge following negative results in January and February that rocked investor confidence in the automaker’s penetration of the world’s largest light-vehicle market.
For the month, BHMC sold 100,549 vehicles, soaring 88.9% over the dismal February total of 53,226 units, when sales were down 17% year-on-year. Hyundai’s own China sales fell even further, backsliding 28% in January.
On a yearly basis, last month’s tally was off 2% from like-2015.
For the quarter, BHMC reported 229,011 sales, off 18.2% from 279,873 in first-quarter 2015.
Hyundai is pinning hopes on a successful 2016 performance by its all-new Elantra, launched last week in Shanghai as the Lingdong. Hyundai spokesmen say the automaker expects to sell 250,000 units of the China-specific compact sedan this year.
Hyundai’s global sales for March tallied 370,712 units, up 28.8% over February but off 0.9% year-over-year. Worldwide sales for the first quarter were down 6.4% with 1,107,369 deliveries compared with 1,183,269 in first-quarter 2015.
