Hyundai Motor's Genesis sales in U.S. spike in March

Hyundai Motor, Korea's top automaker, saw its sales of the Genesis luxury sedan spike over 30 percent on-year in March in the United States, heating up competition mostly driven by German brands, industry data showed Tuesday.

According to the data, Hyundai Motor sold 3,197 units of the Genesis DH in the U.S. last month, up 32.4 percent from a year earlier. The model will be renamed the G80, and will be launched anew later under the automaker's recently separated luxury brand Genesis.

Hyundai Genesis EQ900 (Yonhap)

This marked the first time that its monthly sales topped the 3,000-mark in the U.S. since July 2012, the data showed.

Its brisk sales came amid intensifying competition in the U.S. luxury sedan segment mostly dominated by such German models as the market leader Mercedes-Benz E-Class and the BMW 5-series.

The Genesis DH maintained the second spot in terms of monthly sales for two months in a row by outperforming the BMW 5-series by a small margin. The German model's sales in March stood at 3,157 units, the data showed. (Yonhap)