Hyundai Motor India has reported that in terms of business the 2018 calendar year was its best-ever. While the carmaker’s domestic sales went up by 4.3 per cent, the number of vehicles exported to other markets increased by 6 per cent. The result was a cumulative sales figure of 7,10,012 units, comprising of 5,50,002 units sold in India and the remainder – 1,60,010 units – shipped outside India.

In the calendar year of 2017, Hyundai India clocked an overall sale of 6,78,221 units. That figure consisted of domestic sales – 5,27,320 units – and exports – 1,50,901 units. Do the math on year-on-year growth and you’ll end up with an increase of 4.7 per cent. If we look at only December 2018, the South Korean carmaker retailed 42,093 vehicles. That’s 4.8 per cent more than 40,158 sales figure from December 2017.

Here’s what Vikas Jain, who is the national sales head at Hyundai Motor India Ltd. (HMIL), said in an official statement about the company’s highest-ever sales in a calendar year:

“The calendar year 2018 has been a year of achievements for Hyundai Motor India, registering highest-ever domestic volume of 550,002 units with a growth of 4.3 per cent on strong performance of the newly launched India’s favourite family car – all new Santro along with Grand i10, Elite i20, Creta and Next Gen Verna under the modern premium brand direction with best after sales service.  Our blueprint for 2019 is to develop innovative mobility solutions and technologies that combine smart, connected and intelligent driving and transform peoples’ lives to ‘A Happy Life’.”

In 2018, Hyundai introduced the mid-life updates of the Elite i20 and the i20 Active. The i20 brand recently celebrated a feat – surpassing lifetime global sales of 13 lakh units. Apart from that, the reincarnated Santro boosted the sales numbers further, helping Hyundai India to achieve its highest-ever sales in a single month (October 2018). Towards the end of November last year, Hyundai reported that the Santro bagged over 38,500 bookings and received over 2.11 inquiries.