South Korea's big car company, Hyundai Motor Co., is planning to kick off a new Sonata sedan next month. The news of the upgrade is according to a Hyundai Motor official's statement this Wednesday.

"We will likely launch the new facelift model in March or April," said an unidentified company official. This is quite the update as the medium-sized sedan was slated to debut much later in the year.

A prototype of the new Sonata was seen being tested out in the cold. The sedan was disguised in black and white with its tail lights slightly visible. In a bid to improve poor sales from last year, the new Sonata will sport a new look, which will include the cascading grille found in the other new Hyundai cars like the 2017 Grandeur sedan and i30 hatchback. Advanced safety features seem like it will also be embedded within the vehicle.

"The Sonata has been our best-selling model since its introduction in 1985," a company official said, adding that they still see great sales potential in the LF Sonata. The upgrade, which will have a lot of changes in terms of design should attract more motorists.

The minor model change should not be a shocker. The Sonata experienced a huge 24.2 per cent dip from last year even when it managed to sell 82,203 units in the local market in 2016. According to the official, the new design is expected to satisfy a broader range of consumers.

Two of Sonata's rivals, the SM6 from Renault Samsung and Malibu from Chevrolet performed greatly last year in terms of sales with 57,478 and 36,658 sold units, respectively. The Sonata which also experienced a recall still topped the charts. However, when it came down to excluding sales of LPG model for taxis, SM6 was shining with 31,843 units sold while the Malibu followed closely with 30,364 units sold. Sonata settled with only 23,751 cars.