Hyundai, Kia's US sales fall 4.1% on chip shortage

Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Corp. said Wednesday their combined sales in the United States fell 4.1 percent last month from a year earlier due to a lack of semiconductor parts.

Hyundai and Kia sold 108,828 vehicles in the world's most important automobile market in October from 113,489 units a year ago, according to the companies' sales data.

Hyundai's US sales fell 1 percent to 56,761 units from 57,395 over the cited period, while Kia's declined 7.2 percent to 52,067 from 56,094.

But their sales in the January-October period rose, helped by robust demand for Hyundai's all-electric IONIQ 5 model, Palisade and Kona SUVs, and Kia's Telluride and Sportage SUVs.

"Despite ongoing supply chain issues and chip shortages, we expect our available supply and robust customer interest will help us have a strong finish to the year," Eric Watson, vice president in charge of Kia America's sales operations, said in a statement.

To reflect the supply-side issues, Hyundai revised down its sales target to 4 million vehicles for the year from 4.16 million units. Last year, it sold 3.74 million autos.

Kia expected it won't achieve this year's sales target of 2.92 million units due to the parts problems.

Hyundai and Kia together form the world's fifth-biggest carmaker by sales.

US sales figures for Hyundai's independent Genesis brand were not immediately available. (Yonhap)