CORPORATE business is to become increasingly vital to Hyundai as it looks to increase UK sales from about 30,000 units annually to 40,000 over the next two to three years. And next year will be a crucial one for the Korean manufacturer as its launches five new vehicles into the UK market including its Trajet MPV which received its world premiere at the London Motor Show and facelifts to two further vehicles.

Hyundai UK managing director David Walker says 2000 will be the most exciting year in the company's UK history as it embarks on its bid for 40,000 sales, largely on the strength of a significantly enhanced product line-up. And Walker said: 'The corporate market must become increasingly important to us. We are at 30,000 units now and we want to get to 40,000 units. We must therefore attract the business users and small corporates. We will not be going after large fleet business.

'We will have to address those markets if we are to get ourselves to 40,000 units, which we can do by penetrating into small companies and user-choosers as well as the retail market.' However, he stressed that the real challenge facing the marque was managing the number of new products in the pipeline. 'We had three models in 1995 and by the end of 2000 we will have nine,' said Walker.