Hyundai predicts higher US, China sales

Hyundai Motor Co. said Friday it expects to increase sales by about 10 percent in the United States and 64 percent in China in 2008 by introducing new models after missing targets last year.

Hyundai spokesman Jake Jang said the company expects to sell 515,000 vehicles in the U.S. this year, up from 467,009 cars sold there in 2007.

"We set an aggressive target for this year," Jang said. The company is confident its new Genesis luxury car and a revamped Sonata sedan will bolster sales in its largest overseas market, he said.

Jang attributed the failure to meet last year's sales goals to weak demand for autos in the U.S. amid consumer worries over subprime mortgages and higher oil prices.

Defaults on high-risk housing loans in the U.S., the world's largest economy, have led to tighter global credit since last summer and dented consumer sentiment amid falling stock and housing prices.

Hyundai had lowered its 2007 U.S. sales target 8.1 percent to 510,000 in September, partly as a result of the subprime woes.

Besides the new models, Hyundai has planned an aggressive marketing campaign and an upgrade of its U.S. dealer network, Jang said.

In China, Hyundai's third biggest foreign market, the company expects to sell 380,000 vehicles, Jang said, up 64 percent from last year's 231,137 total. It will open a second factory in May in China.

Hyundai plans to introduce two new models in China this year, the Genesis and the Elantra sedan, Jang said.

"We didn't have any new models in China last year, but competitors did," he said, explaining why Hyundai did not meet its 2007 sales target of 260,000 vehicles.

The Genesis, which Hyundai sees as a competitor to Toyota Motor Corp.'s Lexus and other luxury brands, goes on sale this month in South Korea before hitting showrooms in the U.S. and China during the first half of this year.

Hyundai announced Wednesday that global sales would increase nearly 20 percent to 3.11 million vehicles in 2008 from 2007. It did not give country or regional breakdowns at that time, except for South Korea.

Global sales grew 4.1 percent to 2.6 million vehicles in 2007.

Hyundai spokesman Ki Jin-ho said Friday that the automaker had yet to make individual sales forecasts for the European Union, its second-biggest market, and India, its fourth largest.

The automaker sold 320,000 vehicles in the EU last year, he said, and about 200,000 in India.

Hyundai also said Friday it was looking for a site in Brazil to build its first factory in South America. The company previously announced a plan to build in Brazil, and Jang quoted Hyundai Vice Chairman Kim Dong-jin as telling new Hyundai employees on Friday that a site was being sought. The plant is expected to have an annual production capacity of 100,000 vehicles.

Hyundai, which together with affiliate Kia Motors Corp. forms the world's sixth-largest automaker, also has overseas plants in India, Turkey and the United States. It is building one in the Czech Republic.

Kia, meanwhile, is also forecasting a better year.

The company expects U.S. sales to increase to 370,000 vehicles from 305,473 last year, Hyundai's Jang said, for a gain of 21 percent. Kia's China sales will more than double to 250,000 from 101,427 last year, he said.

Kia said Wednesday that its 2008 global sales would rise about 24 percent to 1.7 million vehicles.