A total of 37,772 i30 hatchbags were sold there last year, becoming the third biggest-selling car in the country, a company spokesman said.

The latest version of the i30 ranked first in the mid-size hatchbag category in the German automotive magazine Auto Bild's Quality Report released in February. It was also given the International Forum (iF) Design Award in product design for automobiles and vehicles last month.

The iF design award is considered one of the three most prestigious in the world, along with the Red Dot Design Award and the International Design Excellence Awards Hyundai also plans to roll out the new i30 wagon or estate car, derived from the hatchback, in Europe in the latter half of the year.

An i30 wagon was introduced at the Geneva International Motor Show last week.

Hatchback models with three to five doors are popular especially among European and North American customers with most of the 49,951 i30s shipped overseas bound for these regions last year.

"We plan to sell over 170,000 i30 cars across the globe this year," a Hyundai official said. "The sale of i30s will accelerate once shipments begin in earnest."

Hyundai has so far sold 17,883 of the new i30 in the global market after its plant in Nosovice, the Czech Republic, began producing them last September.

The number of i30s sold abroad was 130,520 last year, which includes the previous model, with the accumulated sales reaching 1.88 million since the model's debut in 2007. (Yonhap)