Hyundai blames 'softness' in cars for Elantra's spring swoon

Just three months after Hyundai Motor Co. launched a clean-sheet redesign of the Elantra sedan, its best-selling car in the U.S. last year, sales of the compact car plunged 44 percent in April, suggesting the Korean automaker may have hit a snag in a market segment that has recently been among its strongest.

Hyundai said it sold 12,361 Elantras in the U.S. last month, down from 21,911 the prior April. Elantra sales fell 34 percent to 51,724 through the first four months of the year.

Hyundai suggested structural factors are responsible for the decline.

“We are still seeing softness in car sales, which was the headwind our Sonata and Elantra sedans faced,” Derrick Hatami, vice president of national sales at Hyundai Motor America, said in a statement.

Yet the collapse, rare for a newly redesigned car, suggests Hyundai dealers may be losing customers to the restyled Honda Civic, which, despite declining demand for compact cars, is looking like a smash hit. Honda reported Tuesday that it sold 35,331 Civics in April, up from 28,380 last year.

U.S. sales of the Civic rose 29 percent through the first four months of 2016 to 122,634.

In another sign of trouble, Hyundai’s corporate affiliate Kia reported healthy sales gains in April for the redesigned Forte compact car, which shares some technical underpinnings with the Elantra. Forte sales rose 36 percent to 9,740 in April.

Kia Motors America said its overall U.S. sales rose 6.1 percent in April to 56,508, with the newly redesigned Sportage compact crossover posting the strongest results. Kia sold 7,645 Sportages in April, a 79 percent increase over last year.

Through the first four months of 2016, Kia’s U.S. sales rose 4.3 percent to 202,829, further narrowing the gap in its sibling rivalry with Hyundai. Hyundai’s overall U.S. sales dipped 1.9 percent through April to 235,543.