Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's largest carmaker, is expected to post record annual sales for India in 2014, thanks to strong demand for its all-new i20 supermini, company officials said Friday.

    According to Indian data, Hyundai sales in the 10 months of this year rose 8 percent to 343,456 units. At the present pace, the carmaker's sales will likely exceed the record 391,276 units sold for the whole of 2012, officials said.

   Hyundai sold 38,010 cars last month, up 5.6 percent from the year before. The increase is the second-highest monthly gain after Japan's Honda Motor Co., which reported an 18.1 percent on-year jump in sales. Market leader Maruti Suzuki said its sales were up 1 percent.

   Hyundai's growth is significant because it comes as demand for cars on the sub-continent contracted 5.1 percent from the year before.

   The gain helped Hyundai maintain its second-place market share at 17.3 percent.

   Industry insiders said Hyundai's gains were helped by sales of the i20, which was launched in July. The car made in India, sold 6,627 units in August, 8,902 in September and 8,895 in October.

   Besides the i20, sales of the Grand i10, the i10 mini and Accent subcompact helped push up sales.

   "New models launched in the past few months accounted for 60 percent of all sales, an indication of the popularity of these Hyundai cars," the Hyundai official said.  (Yonhap)