This file photo, provided by Hyundai Motor on March 30, 2023, shows the Hyundai IONIQ 5 electric vehicle.
SEOUL, Aug. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — Hyundai Motor Co. and its smaller affiliate Kia Corp. said Wednesday their vehicle sales in the United States rose 12 percent in July from a year earlier, helped by robust sales of SUVs and electric vehicles.
Hyundai and Kia sold a total of 143,787 vehicles in the U.S. last month, up from 128,283 units a year ago. Hyundai figures include sales results of its independent Genesis brand.
Hyundai’s vehicle sales rose 10 percent on-year to 66,527 units, with Genesis’ sales jumping 22 percent at 6,330 and Kia’s up 14 percent at 70,930, according to sales data released by the companies.
“Hyundai continues to wow customers with its eco-friendly product offerings, including Ioniq 5, Ioniq 6, and our hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV). Our green car sales have risen substantially month-to-month thus far in 2023,” Randy Parker, CEO of Hyundai Motor America, said in a statement.
Robust sales of Hyundai’s Santa Cruz, Tucson, Tucson PHEV, Santa Fe HEV SUV models and all-electric Ioniq 5 propped up the company’s July sales results.
“As sales of our utility models continue to account for more than 70 percent of our overall total and inventory levels on in-demand vehicles continue to improve, we are confident that the launch of Kia’s flagship EV9 all-electric three-row SUV later this year will only accelerate this momentum for the foreseeable future,” Eric Watson, vice president in charge of sales operations at Kia America, said.
In July, Hyundai’s electrified vehicle sales surged 78 percent on-year to 15,392 units, and Kia’s pure electric model sales jumped 72 percent to 11,106.
From January to July, the two Korean carmakers’ vehicle sales in the U.S. climbed 16 percent to 963,967 autos from 831,158 units in the same period of last year.
Hyundai and Kia have set a combined sales goal of 7.52 million units in 2023, up 9.8 percent from the 6.85 million units they sold last year.
Hyundai and Kia aim to sell 4.32 million autos and 3.2 million units, respectively, in global markets this year.
The two South Korean carmakers together form the world’s third-largest carmaker by sales after Toyota Motor Corp. and Volkswagen Group.
(Yonhap)
