Overseas sales of Hyundai Motor Co.’s premium sedans such as the Genesis and the Equus more than doubled in the first five months of the year, buoyed by rising demand in the United States, industry sources said Sunday.

According to the sources, Hyundai Motor, South Korea’s leading automaker, exported a total of 28,865 Genesis, Equus and Grandeur sedans in the January-May period, compared with 12,958 units a year earlier.

Hyundai Motor sold a total of 13,553 Grandeur sedans in overseas markets in the first five months of the year, around three times more than a year earlier.

Overseas sales of the Genesis rose 56 percent on-year to 12,510 units in the January-May period, with the comparable figure for the Equus being 2,802 units, up 45 percent over the cited period, according to the sources.

The sharp rise in overseas sales of Hyundai Motor’s premium sedans was mostly driven by their rising popularity in the U.S.

A total of 10,566 Genesis sedans were sold in the U.S. during the cited period. The average monthly sales of the Genesis sedan in the U.S. market have topped the 2,000 unit mark since March. The sedan was introduced in the U.S. in June 2008.

The sales of the Grandeur, called the Azera in the U.S. market, also rose sharply with a total of 5,238 units of the all-new Grandeur HG sedan sold in the U.S. in the April-May period, they said. 

(Yonhap News)