Hyundai and Kia, which stumbled through a mileage overstatement scandal in late October, did not see any major consumer fallout in North America last month, posting record November sales in the U.S.
Hyundai Motor said Tuesday that U.S. sales rose 8 percent to 53,487 vehicles last month, while its affiliate Kia Motors sold 41,055 units, up 11 percent over a year earlier.
Amid an enhanced marketing offensive by Japanese carmakers, however, their combined market share fell slightly last month to 8.3 percent from 8.7 percent during the same period last year.
“With increased Elantra availability, thanks to the recently added third shift in our Alabama plant, and demand high for everything in our lineup from Accent to Equus, we’re looking forward to breaking our all-time annual sales record early in December,” said John Krafcik, Hyundai Motor America CEO, in a statement.
In Canada, Hyundai and Kia reported even higher sales growth. Hyundai sales increased 20 percent on-year to 10,101 vehicles last month, while Kia saw a 17.8 percent increase selling 5,719 units.
“We expected some negative impact in our November sales following the mileage adjustment of one to four miles per gallon,” a Hyundai official said. “But we could minimize the impact by taking follow-up measures promptly.”
By Lee Ji-yoon (
jylee@heraldcorp.com)
