Hyundai intends to get rid of the Sonata sedan, the Chosun website reports quoting insiders who say the automaker never started working on the new generation initially penciled in for release in 2025.
In all probability, the company found its sedan sales dropping further and decided to focus on electrifying its entire product range instead of supporting older models. It remains to be seen how long the current Sonata is going to remain on sale.
According to Chosun, some of the Sonata assembly lines at multiple Hyundai factories in South Korea have already been repurposed for EV production. Despite this, the model may still get its final facelift in 2023.
The Hyundai Sonata debuted 37 years ago and became one of South Korea’s longest-lived vehicles in history, selling over 9 million units worldwide. However, as the market continued to choose SUVs and crossovers over light passenger cars with four doors, its popularity plummeted.
The latest-gen Sonata has found 440,000 buyers so far, a steep decline from at least a million units sold of most previous generations. Back home in Korea, 50 percent of all cars the company sells are crossover SUVs.