Accumulative sales of eco-friendly vehicles produced by Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp., South Korea’s leading automakers, are expected to exceed 1 million units in the first quarter. (Image courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group)
SEOUL, March 17 (Korea Bizwire) – Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp., South Korea’s biggest carmakers, have sold more than an accumulated 5 million eco-friendly vehicles in the global market over the past 15 years, company officials said Sunday.
The two companies sold a total of 5.11 million units of eco-friendly cars, including hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), electric vehicles (EVs) and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), as of end-January, surpassing the 5 million mark 15 years after they began selling such models in 2009, according to the officials.
Hyundai Motor and its smaller affiliate Kia sold a combined 1.36 million eco-friendly vehicles last year alone, hitting the 1 million mark for the second consecutive year.
Of the environment friendly models, HEVs were the most popular, accounting for 57.8 percent of total sales, followed by EVs at 30.8 percent, PHEVs at 10.6 percent and FCEVs at 0.8 percent.
In detail, Kia’s Niro HEV sold the most at 606,000 units, with Hyundai’s Tucson Hybrid and KONA Electric trailing at 356,000 and 332,000 units, respectively.
The Korean carmakers said the growth of the global EV market is attributable to their solid sales and they plan to expand their environment friendly vehicle lineup this year.
Hyundai plans to release an electric model of the mini sport utility vehicle (SUV) Casper in the second half of this year, while Kia will unveil its new all-electric SUV, EV3, in the first half.
Hyundai and Kia said they aim to sell a combined 1.5 million units of eco-friendly cars this year, upping their EV sales by 27 percent to 600,000 units and sales of hybrid models by 25 percent to 850,000 units.
(Yonhap)
