This image provided by Hyundai Motor Group shows the Kona Electric.
SEOUL, July 15 (Korea Bizwire) — Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp. saw their standings sharply rise in global electric vehicle sales in the January-May period, a market research firm said Wednesday.
Hyundai Motor ranked sixth in EV sales in the first five months from ninth in the year-ago period, while Kia’s ranking jumped to seventh from 14th over the cited period, according to data from market tracker SNE Research.
Hyundai sold a total of 26,500 electrified vehicles, including plug-in hybrid models, in the five-month period, down 2 percent from 27,000 units a year ago. Kia’s EV sales rose 16 percent to 24,600 from 21,300 during the cited period, it said.
Given that global carmakers sold a combined 710,100 units in the five-month period, down 20 percent from 891,400 a year earlier, Hyundai and Kia appeared to have fared better than many other rivals such as Audi, Volvo and Nissan Motor Co. in terms of sales growth, SNE Research said.
U.S. electric carmaker Tesla Motors Inc. topped others by selling 125,800 units, up 13.3 percent from 111,000 during the mentioned period.
BMW ranked second with a 1.9 percent decline to 50,000 units, followed by Chinese carmaker BYD Co.’s 68 percent drop to 36,600, Volkswagen’s 107 percent jump to 30,700 and Renault S.A.’s 22 percent jump to 29,300, the data showed.
To compete with bigger rivals, Hyundai Motor Group said Tuesday it aims to sell at least 1 million all-electric vehicles in 2025 to achieve a market share of over 10 percent in the global pure electric vehicle market.
Hyundai Motor and Kia, which together form the world’s fifth-biggest carmaker by sales, have sold a combined 270,000 electric vehicles in South Korea and overseas markets since 2011.
The two carmakers plan to unveil 44 eco-friendly vehicles, including 23 all-electric ones under the three separate brands of Hyundai, Hyundai’s independent brand Genesis and Kia, by 2025.
Currently, the group’s pure electric models are Hyundai’s Kona EV and Ioniq Electric and Kia’s Soul EV and Niro EV. An all-electric model under the Genesis brand is not available for now.
(Yonhap)
