Despite the new pricing brought by the excise tax, Hyundai Asia Resources, Inc (HARI) posted competitive sales figures in the first quarter of 2018. As such, sales slowed down by just 1.2% compared to the same period last year.

During the first three months of the current year, HARI managed to sell a total of 8,731 units. Taking a huge cut from Q1 figures is the passenger cars segment, which grew by 3.7% or 6,205 units sold. The Accent still leads the way for HARI with 3,899 units now on the road. The Eon subcompact hatchback follows with 1,876 units sold, while there are now 426 new owners of the Elantra compact sedan.

Hyundai’s dynamism has shown no boundaries as it continues to beat the odds and hurdle any obstacles. First quarter sales remain firm and consistent with the trend in the industry, but we are expecting greater potential for the rest of the year. We are confident to continue this as we serve our customers with bolder, fiercer, unique and game-changing products and services.

For the Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV), on the other hand, first quarter sales dropped by 11.5% – from 2,855 units in Q1 2017 to 2,526 in Q1 2018. Sales for the Grand Starex is down to 712 this year, while the Santa Fe experiences a massive dip with just 74 units out compared to 206 last year. HARI says that the dip may be due to the customer’s anticipation of the newer models in the latter part of 2018. The Tucson and H-100, meanwhile, had a good start this year with 754 and 986 units sold, respectively.

[source: Autodeal PH]