One of the most successful cars in Hyundai’s past may not have much of a future. The North American Hyundai Sonata may be getting the boot as soon as 2025 to make way for more EVs and crossovers.
According to a report this month from Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo, sources inside Hyundai claim it’s an “open secret” that the Sonata will soon be discontinued and its assembly lines replaced to make EVs. The Sonata will likely get a facelift, then ride off into the sunset around 2025.
“Sonata remains and will continue to be an important part of Hyundai’s product lineup. Any rumors on its future are pure speculation,” a Hyundai spokesperson told us.
Since going on sale in North America in 1989, the Sonata has been Hyundai’s third best-selling car globally, selling 9.17 million cars worldwide, behind only the Elantra and Accent. And yet, due to the increasing demand for crossovers and compact cars, demand for the midsize Hyundai Sonata is dropping. The Sonata sold about 440,000 units for the last three years, versus the 1 million or more sales that previous generations had over the same time period. Crossovers accounted for more than 47 percent of Hyundai’s sales last year, so you can imagine Hyundai wants to make more crossovers and EVs and fewer sedans.
There will be at least some sort of electric sedan from Hyundai in the future. The report says that Hyundai isn’t necessarily going to replace the Sonata with an electric version, but instead, it will prioritize an electric compact sedan and electric crossovers. This isn’t entirely shocking, considering Hyundai has claimed it wants to be a fully EV automaker by 2035.
With this news, if true, it’s possible that the KIA K5, which is based on the Sonata, is also on the chopping block. Though the all-electric KIA EV6 will stick around and could be the basis for whatever EV Hyundai comes up with next, such as a Hyundai Ioniq 6.
Got tips? Send ’em to nicolas.demattia@teamrecurrent.io