Hyundai, Kia post record sales in US in February

Seoul: Hyundai Motor, South Korea’s top automaker, saw its sales in the United States climb 3 per cent from a year ago in February, marking its biggest sales for the month, the company said on Sunday.

Hyundai Motor’s U.S. sales reached 62,032 units last month, compared with 60,341 units sold in the same month last year, according to the automaker.

The figure marked the largest for any February, the company added.

The growth was driven by a 194 per cent surge in sales of the Santa Fe hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) and a 12 per cent increase in sales of the Ioniq 6 EV.

Kia Corp., Hyundai’s sister company and South Korea’s second-largest carmaker, also set a U.S. sales record for the month, according to the company, with sales rising 7.2 percent on-year to 63,303 units.

The company attributed the increase in sales to its lineup of sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and solid sales of the new K4 sedan.

Earlier, Hyundai Motor’s total monthly sales for January dropped 2.3 per cent from a year earlier due to a reduced number of business days. The automaker sold 310,399 vehicles last month, down from 317,823 units the same month last year.

Domestic sales fell 7.5 per cent on-year to 46,054 units, while overseas sales shed 1.4 per cent to 264,345 units.

Hyundai Motor attributed the reduction in sales to the reduced business days from last month’s extended Lunar New Year holiday, reports Yonhap news agency.

At home, the bestselling model was the Grandeur sedan, selling 5,711 units. The Sante Fe was the most popular sport utility vehicle (SUV) domestically, selling 4,819 units.

Kia said its monthly sales for January fell 2.4 per cent due to the reduced number of working days amid the Lunar New Year holiday.

—IANS