Hyundai Motor will launch nine new cars in China by the end of next year to seek a turnaround in its sluggish sales in the world’s biggest car market.

South Korea’s largest automaker announced Sunday that, starting next month with sport utility vehicle Palisade, it will introduce three sedans, three recreational vehicles and two electric vehicles in the country through 2021 to rebound after sales there plummeted in recent years.

The automaker’s three sedans include the new Elantra, Mistra and La Festa’s facelift version, while its RV lineup will feature the Custo MPV, ix35’s facelift version and Tucson. Also, Hyundai will launch Mistra EV and Ioniq 5 -- its first EV based on its new platform E-GMP.

The Ioniq 5 is a subcompact crossover utility vehicle that will be released early next year featuring motifs from Hyundai Motor’s electric vehicle concept 45. 

Hyundai’s sales in China, which stood at 1.14 million units in 2016, nosedived to 785,700 in 2017, maintained a similar level of 790,117 in 2018, and then dropped to 650,123 last year. As a result, Hyundai’s market share in the country dipped to 3.1 percent from 5.1 percent in the period.

The automaker’s China sales in February, when the coronavirus first began to spread, fell 97.4 percent on-year, while overall car sales in the country declined 83.9 percent in the same period.

In July, its sales in China shrank 19.1 percent on-year, while overall car sales in the country only increased 8.5 percent in the same period.

To tackle its lackadaisical performance in China, the car maker promoted Lee Kwang-guk to president and head of China operations last October from his former position as executive vice president and head of Korea business division at the company.

By Kim Byung-wook (kbw@heraldcorp.com)