Hyundai Motor Company, South Korea’s largest automaker, posted its best monthly sales performance ever as sales rose 11.4 per cent to 253,846 units on a global basis from a year earlier. This meant that Hyundai has reached the Global Top Five Automakers.

This brings first half sales to a record high of 1,481,152 units, a 14.2 per cent y-o-y increase. This result was mainly achieved thanks to overseas sales. Hyundai’s domestic passenger car sales drove the company to new heights.

The Hyundai i30 was one of the main drivers behind this rise as they edged up by 6.4 per cent to 32,234 units.

Asked to comment on these results, a spokesperson for Hyundai said that “we’re on track to reach our sales target of three million units for this year thanks to brisk demand in China, India, as well as through our efforts in emerging markets such as Russia and the Middle East.”

The group has seen remarkable growth in the four decades since Hyundai Motor Co. was founded. It ranked as the world’s 11th largest automaker in 1999 – the year Hyundai Chairman Chung Mong-Koo took over the helm as the CEO.

Since then, under Chairman Chung’s leadership, it has moved steadily up the rankings ladder, accelerating its push to globalise operations by building new manufacturing plants in the United States, China, India, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Russia.

Counting the export sales of 185,114 complete knock-down kits which are assembled by overseas partners, the group’s 2007 global sales reached 4,146,743 units.