Hyundai expects to hit record U.S. sales in 2010, 2011 goals looking good

2011 Hyundai Sonata

Hyundai’s CEO John Krafcik said the he expects the company to set a record for annual U.S. sales next week and expects sales to grow even more in 2011 amid gradual auto industry growth. Krafcik said that he expects auto industry sales to increase to 12.3 million in 2011, up from 11.3 million this year.

“As we look at how heavy the industry went to the fleet market to keep sales up this year, it is pretty amazing,” Krafcik said. “We are not going to have that next year.”

Hyundai expects its sales to top 500,00 in the U.S by mid-December and end 2010 with a 4.8 percent market share. Krafcik said that the company’s 2011 goals would be “more than that.” However, he said that it would be tough to increase Hyundai’s market share by a significant amount in 2011 due to company production capacity limits.

The Korean automaker has been hitting maximum production capacity in the U.S. and will have similar limits next year.

“I think it is fair to say we will probably be production constrained next year as well,” Krafcik said.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Reuters