Hyundai’s US sales jump 15 pc YoY in January

Seoul: Hyundai Motor, South Korea’s top automaker, saw its sales in the United States climb 15 per cent from a year ago in January, marking its biggest sales for the month to date, the company said on Sunday.

Hyundai Motor’s U.S. sales reached 54,503 units last month, compared with 47,543 units sold in the same month last year, according to the automaker.

The on-year growth was driven by a 74 percent surge in sales of hybrid models and a 15 percent increase in sales of electric vehicles (EVs), with the Santa Fe hybrid EV (HEV), Tucson HEV, Ioniq 5 and 6 EVs all posting record sales for January, reports Yonhap news agency.

Kia, Hyundai’s sister company and South Korea’s second-largest carmaker, also saw US sales rise 12 percent on-year to 57,007 units in January, according to the company. It marked Kia’s record U.S. sales for January.

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

Meanwhile, combined vehicle sales of leading South Korean automakers Hyundai Motor and Kia in Europe fell 3.9 per cent on-year in 2024, industry data showed.

According to the data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), Hyundai Motor and Kia sold a combined 1,063,517 units in Europe last year.

ACEA data showed Hyundai Motor’s sales stayed nearly unchanged from a year earlier at 534,360 units, while those of Kia dropped 7.5 percent to 529,157 units.

The combined market share of Hyundai and Kia in Europe for 2024 was tallied at 8.2 percent, down 0.4 percentage point from the previous year.

Hyundai Motor Group said it succeeded in surpassing sales of over 1 million units in Europe for the fourth straight year.

For the month of December, the South Korean automakers sold 79,066 units combined, up. 2.7 percent from a year ago.

—IANS