Hyundai sales up 6% in first 5 months

Hyundai Asia Resources Inc. sold few cars in May this year, sliding 6 percent from the same period in 2016, months after it reported its highest monthly output last March, company sales report showed.

Hari sales went down to 2,801 units in May from 2,993 units in the same month last year. The slip could be attributed to the decline in sales of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, which fell 5 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

Since the company did not provide a year-on-year figure for its April sales, it could not be verified if last May was the first time that the company has seen a decline in its sales. Otherwise, the company has been reporting year-on-year sales increase every month since the start of the year.

Hyundai sold 2,521 units last April, a figure which it described as a feat considering fewer working days in the said month.

A company representative has not responded to a request for comment as of press time.

The latest sales report followed two months after Hari reported selling 3,371 units in March alone, the highest monthly output of the company in its entire 15-year history.

Nevertheless, the company sold a total of 14,163 units from January to May, up 6 percent from the comparative period a year ago that saw deliveries of 13,410 units.

The official distributor of Hyundai vehicles here in the Philippines has sold 9,770 units year-to-date under the passenger car segment, up 6 percent from last year’s 9,193 units.

Hyundai’s Accent was still its top-selling nameplate, having sold 6,299 units, up 39 percent from the model’s sales in the same five moths a year ago.

Light commercial vehicles also saw an increase, climbing 4 percent from January to May to 4,393 units from last year’s 4,217 units, driven primarily by the Grand Starex, which sold 1,672 units. –Roy Stephen C. Canivel