Hyundai Motor America closed the first quarter strong with best-ever March sales and also posted the fifth consecutive month of record sales, while crossovers continue to provide a major lift to Genesis.
Hyundai logged U.S. sales of 75,404 in March, representing a 27 percent increase over the year-earlier month. Hyundai’s first quarter sales rose 16 percent to 184,449, compared with the same period last year.
Compared with March 2022, Genesis posted sales of 5,656, an increase of 23 percent over March 2022. In the first quarter, Genesis sales of 13,769 were up 17 percent compared with the first three months of last year. The top-selling GV70 crossover was up 41 percent with deliveries of 2,100, according to the brand. In its first month on sale, The electric variant of the GV70 logged 45 sales, according to Genesis. Sales of the GV80 sedan tallied 1,491, a 21 percent increase.
Notable nameplates: Hyundai Elantra, up 32% in March, up 47% in the first quarter; Sonata, up 209% in March, up 87% in the first quarter; Palisade, down 15% in March, down 6.8% in the first quarter; Santa Cruz, up 30% in March, up 11% in the first quarter; Santa Fe, up 31% in March, up 12% in the first quarter; Tucson, up 47% in March, up 16% in the first quarter; Venue, up 74% in March, up 31% in the first quarter
Incentives: $1,019 per vehicle in March, up 58% from a year earlier, TrueCar says
Average transaction price: $36,541 in March, flat from a year earlier, according to TrueCar
Fleet mix: 9.4% of March volume, or roughly 7,088 vehicles
Inventory: Hyundai closed March with 53,119 cars and light trucks in U.S. inventory, down slightly from 54,156 at the end of February but an increase from 17,271 a year earlier.
Quote: “Retail, fleet and commercial demand remain very strong,” said Randy Parker, CEO of Hyundai Motor America. “I still believe there is a lot of pent-up demand in the marketplace right now because of the chip shortage. But what’s fueling a lot of peoples’ success is that availability is definitely improving.”
Did you know? Lease penetration for the Hyundai Ioniq 5 has risen from about 2 percent at the start of the year to about 33 percent now, Parker said, due to the availability of tax credits for EV leases as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
Michael Martinez contributed to this report.