(September 21, 2010) MONTGOMERY, Ala. — An all-new Hyundai Elantra will join its larger sibling, the Sonata, in production at Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama (HMMA) starting in late fall this year. This change, along with the recent move of the Santa Fe to a Kia production facility in Georgia, will further increase Hyundai’s overall U.S. production capacity, which was already producing over half of total U.S. sales volume.

“Hyundai’s philosophy is to build our vehicles where we sell them, and with the addition of the Elantra to our U.S. production mix we now manufacture our three most popular models right here in the U.S.,” said John Krafcik, president and CEO, Hyundai Motor America.

The all-new 2011 Elantra sedan will make its public debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show this November, while sales are scheduled to begin early next year. The new Elantra shares the same game-changing recipe of distinctive design and class-leading fuel economy that has made the 2011 Sonata the most shopped vehicle in the entire industry the last four months and the 6th best-selling vehicle in the industry in August. 

Sonata is the best-selling vehicle in Hyundai’s U.S. lineup, with sales of 128,484 though the end of August, a 50 percent increase over the same period last year. Elantra sales through the same period of 90,960 are up 21 percent over the same period last year.
 
HMMA has consistently ranked as one of the highest quality plants in Hyundai’s worldwide operations and is an outstanding example of Hyundai’s focused commitment to quality.

More than 1,200,000 vehicles have rolled off the HMMA assembly line since production began on May 20, 2005.