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According to the wholesale sales of Hyundai, Hyundai Sonata sold 14339 and 8321 vehicles respectively from 2020 to 2021, and 1104 from January to July this year, showing a sharp decline. According to previous reports, due to the poor performance of the 10th generation Sonata models in the global market, Hyundai will abandon the conventional medium-term revamped models and directly enter the replacement models, which may be released in April 2023 and followed by Beijing Hyundai to introduce domestic models. Officials did not respond to the news.

At present, an imaginary picture of a new generation of Hyundai Sonata models has been exposed online, and the exposed imaginary picture may be the upcoming replacement of the Sonata, with the internal code name "DN9". Combining the previously exposed road test spy photos and the latest exposure of the imaginary picture, the appearance of the new car uses a new design language, the front part of the face uses a large forward air grille, with split headlamp groups on both sides, and the upper daylight uses penetrating LED light source, the overall shape is younger. On the side of the body, the new car adopts a sedan car design style, and the roof is pressed down from the front row. It is expected that the outline and size of the new car body will not be much different from that of the current model. In the rear part, the new car adopts the popular penetrating taillight group, and the exhaust is one-sided and two-way layout.

A new generation of Sonata imaginary diagram

The new generation of Sonata spy photos

In terms of interior decoration and power, no news has been released so far. As a reference, the current Sonata power offers 1.5T and 2.0T engines with maximum power of 170 horsepower and 240 horsepower respectively. In terms of transmission, 1.5T matches a 7-speed dry double-clutch gearbox; 2.0T matches an 8-speed manual self-integrated gearbox.

According to the concern of the automobile industry, Sonata's development can be traced back to the 1980s. The first generation of Sonata was launched in 1985. The car was based on the Stellar model and was equipped with 1.8L and 2.0L engines. Due to the mainstream configuration and high fuel economy, the car was soon sought after by the market, with sales of 528000 vehicles in just three years. The second-generation Sonata was launched in 1988, the new car uses the front-drive layout for the first time, and the overall model structure is more compact. It has sold 120000 vehicles in one year after entering the US market.

Five years later, the third-generation Sonata went on sale in 1993. Compared with the previous two generations, this generation has changed a lot from the tough design style to the Japanese-Korean design. At the same time, it has abandoned sharing car-building platforms with other brands, invested more independent research and development platforms and incorporated more luxury design elements, and sales have been further improved. In 1998, the fourth-generation Sonata was launched. In order to expand its influence in the European market, this generation of models are close to German cars in appearance design.

In 2002, the Sonata model was officially made in China. On October 18, 2002, Hyundai Group and BAIC jointly established Beijing Hyundai Automobile, which became the first Sino-foreign joint venture project in the field of automobile production approved after China's accession to the WTO. On December 24 of the same year, Beijing Hyundai's first model, Sonata, was officially launched, while this model was officially the fifth generation of Sonata. The new car is biased towards commercial cars in overall styling, with a domestic price of 17.9-265000 yuan. After the launch of the new car sales are very gratifying, the first year on the market sales reached more than 50,000 units, since then several consecutive years of sales have reached more than 40,000.

In 2005, the sixth generation Sonata was unveiled and named "Yuxiang". The new car is based on NF, a modern medium-sized car platform, with 2.0L and 2.4L engines. As the price of the car on the market is much higher than that of the previous generation, its sales are significantly lower than those of the previous generation.

In December 2008, the seventh generation Sonata went on the market as a modified model and renamed it "leading Xiang". It is the second customized model for Chinese consumers launched by Beijing Hyundai after Yueyong. Because the new car is a modified model, there is little change with the previous generation of models, but the new car is a change aimed at the domestic market, although it does not change much, but the new car improves the product adaptability. Therefore, after the launch, the sales of the new car is also better than that of the previous generation model "Yuxiang".

In 2011, Beijing Hyundai launched the eighth generation Sonata, which is also eye-catching. This model is a medium-sized car officially launched by South Korean Hyundai Group to the global automobile market in 2010. After Beijing Hyundai introduced the eighth generation Sonata model, it is called "Sonata 8" in China. Because the overall appearance of the new car is more in line with the market demand, it has also obtained great sales feedback at the market level. There is even a performance of more than 10,000 vehicles sold in a single month, reversing the previous sluggish sales. The figures show that it sold 100454 vehicles in 2012 and 104670 in 2013, but it did not last long, with only 54946 in 2014 because Beijing Hyundai introduced the ninth-generation Sonata model.

The ninth-generation Sonata was officially unveiled in 2014 and officially went on sale in March 2015, selling in the same room as the eighth-generation Sonata, with two-generation models aimed at different market segments and people. Compared with the eighth generation model, the ninth generation Sonata design style has changed significantly, the new car size is also larger, but the ninth generation Sonata sales are still poor. According to the data, from 2015 to 2020, Sonata sold 64910, 35998, 12760, 6693 and 13483 vehicles, respectively.

In order to reverse the situation, Sonata once again ushered in a change, that is, the tenth generation of Sonata. In July 2020, the 10th generation Sonata went on the market, and the price range of the new car is 16.18-205800 yuan. As a new replacement model, the overall shape of the new car is more radical, and the power combination of 1.5T engine + 7DCT double clutch gearbox and 2.0T engine + 8AT gearbox is provided. However, sales of the 10th generation Sonata are not optimistic, with cumulative sales of 9667 vehicles in 2021, with an average monthly sales of about 800.

Sonata model is an important model of Beijing Hyundai, and its decline in sales also directly affects the overall sales of Beijing Hyundai. Since its establishment in 2002, Beijing Hyundai has a history of 20 years, and before 2016, Beijing Hyundai occupied the domestic passenger car market with high performance-to-price ratio. According to the data, sales from 2013 to 2016 were 1.03 million, 1.16 million, 1.06 million and 1.14 million respectively, and 2016 was the highlight of its development. however, after entering 2017, its sales began to decline and showed a trend of continuous decline for five consecutive years, with sales of 755659, 782163, 685126 and 384782 respectively from 2017 to 2020, while in the past 2021, Beijing Hyundai sold 359851 vehicles. This figure is a far cry from its annual sales of 560000 vehicles, with a completion rate of just 55.4 per cent.

With regard to the continuous decline in sales of Hyundai in Beijing, people in the industry believe that it is mainly because Beijing Hyundai has not innovated in strategy and models according to changes in the market and the process of localization is relatively slow, while introducing too many similar models, resulting in uneven distribution of marketing resources at the same time, unable to quickly respond to changes in the market. According to the official website of Beijing Hyundai, the cars currently on sale in Beijing Hyundai include Mingtu, Elantra, Sonata, Yuehua, Festa, Yuezong, SUV Tusheng L, ix35, ix25, Shengda, MPV Cousteau and other models. The Elantra is the top-selling model of Hyundai in Beijing, with a cumulative sales of 52010 vehicles from January to July in 2022, followed by Hyundai ix35 with 29889 and Sonata with only 2626, according to the Federation of passengers. The reason why Sonata skips the mid-term upgrade directly, or it is related to the poor sales caused by the current Sonata's design unable to meet the market demand, but such a fast replacement rate as Sonata is still relatively rare in the market. as for whether Sonata will change the situation significantly ahead of schedule, it remains to be seen whether the situation can be changed.

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