While it may be too early to assess the commercial success of the 2015 Hyundai Sonata, sales figures don’t look promising, as the sedan is off to a slow start in the U.S.
The all-new sedan may have received encouraging reviews from US media, with Consumer Reports describing it as very competitive, but its design is seen by many as too bland to convince buyers. A failure for the Sonata in the United States would be a big blow, as the country is the model’s second-biggest market after China.
Launched in June in the U.S., the 2015 Sonata has struggled to keep up with competitors such as the Nissan Altima and Honda Accord both in terms of pricing and appeal. Hyundai sold 41,994 new Sonatas in the first four months following its U.S. launch, which is 13 percent fewer than its predecessor.
“The new Sonata product super-exceeds the previous model in every way, shape, or form. But consumers are very much driven by what the vehicle looks like,” Scott Fink, chief executive of Hyundai’s biggest U.S. dealer in New Port Richey, Florida, told Reuters.
It appears that Hyundai’s decision to make the new Sonata less bold and more angular than its curvy predecessors in order to appeal to more conservative buyers in South Korea is backfiring in the U.S. But things aren’t going well in South Korea either. Hyundai sold 6,861 Sonatas in September, nearly half from 11,904 in April when the model was launched.
For 2014, Hyundai reportedly has a U.S. sales target of 92,500. In order to meet that goal, the automaker needs to sell nearly 17,000 new Sonatas a month for the rest of the year. So far, the Sonata’s average monthly sales are 10,500.
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