Hyundai Motor sold over 685-thousand-500 vehicles in the U.S. market last year, 12 percent less than the previous year.

According to Hyundai Motor America on Wednesday, the decreased sales are due to a 31 percent drop in fleet sales which refer to large volumes sold to corporations and rental car firms.

Meanwhile, Hyundai's retail sales dropped five percent.

The carmaker, however, noted that sales of sport-utility vehicles(SUV) posted 12 percent growth last year and that SUVs now account for a record 36 percent of total sales.

John Angevine, director of National Sales at Hyundai Motor America, said that Hyundai's consecutive growth for eight years in terms of annual sales has stopped, but it is successfully positioned to achieve qualitative growth in 2018 as shown in the increased percentage of SUV sales.