Hyundai Avante's global sales hit 10 million

Hyundai Motor employees and members of an Avante fan club celebrate the car’s global sales hitting 10 million at its head office in Seoul, Monday. / Courtesy of Hyundai Motor

By Park Jin-hai

Hyundai Motor’s flagship Avante compact’s cumulated global sales have topped 10 million, the company said Tuesday.

It is the first local brand to achieve such commercial success.

Since the Avante (then the Elantra) was launched in October 1990, it has sold the equivalent of 420,000 cars each year and 1,100 cars each day for the past 24 years.

It sold 2.6 million on the local market, and another 7.4 million in 177 countries.

A total of 6.4 million Avantes have been domestically manufactured, while some 3.6 million were produced in Hyundai Motor’s American, Chinese and Indian factories.

From the first-generation model Elantra in 1990 to the fifth-generation Avante MD in 2010, the brand has been popular at home and abroad.

It was crowned North American Car of the Year at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show over the Ford Focus and Volkswagen Passat. It also earned the title of South African Car of the Year in 2012.

Globally speaking, there are a little more than 10 ten brands that have accomplished the 10 million sales mark, including the Toyota Corolla, Volkswagen Golf and Beetle and Honda Civic.

“Given the country’s relatively short automobile history, compared with that of the United State and Germany, the record-breaking sales for the Avante are a great feat for the Korean automobile industry,” said a company official in a statement.

“It is the hallmark of our automobile’s top quality and brand power. We will continue to make efforts to promote Korean cars by developing models with great quality and design.”

To celebrate the occasion, the country’s top automaker is holding an Avante Festival at Ilsan KINTEX on Nov. 8, where some 2,000 families of Avante and Elantra owners will be able to enjoy concerts, an Avante history exhibition and other events.