Hyundai Motor, South Korea’s top automaker, said Sunday its sales of large luxury vehicles in the United States grew significantly from a year earlier in May, largely on the launch of a new model of the Genesis luxury car.

Hyundai Motor, together with its affiliate Kia Motors, sold a combined 2,622 large luxury vehicles in the U.S. last month, up 41 percent from the same month last year.

The companies’ combined market share also gained 1.9 percentage points on-year to 8.9 percent, it said. The May figure also represented an increase of 3.1 percentage points from the previous month.

Hyundai attributed the increase mostly to the U.S. launch of the new Genesis luxury car.

In May, 2,071 units of the Genesis were sold in the U.S., single-handedly taking up a 7 percent market share for large luxury vehicles in the United States.

“The rise in sales of luxury cars in the U.S. means not only that the company’s brand image has improved, but that its profitability has also improved,” a company official said. (Yonhap)