Hyundai, Kia post record car sales in Europe in March

Hyundai Motor Co. and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors Corp. said Thursday that they posted record monthly sales in Europe last month on growing demand for their strategic car models targeting local customers.

Hyundai Motor said that its Europe sales in March came to 48,215 units, up 11.9 percent from the previous year when it sold 43,076 cars. This marked the largest monthly sales following 48,001 units recorded in March 2012.

Kia Motors also saw its Europe sales expand 9.9 percent on-year to 44,478 units in March, shattering its previous sales record there of 40,479 units set in March last year.

Experts attribute the brisk sales by South Korea's two largest carmakers to strong demand for their Europe-targeted models.

Hyundai Motor sold 11,363 units and 10,297 units of the i10 and i20 mini-cars, respectively, while selling 10,764 units of the Tucson iX last month in the region. Kia Motors' Sportage SUV also emerged as its best-selling model in Europe with 12,596 units sold last month.

Their March market shares have yet to be unveiled, but the latest sales figures are raising expectations for an improvement.

Hyundai and Kia saw their market share in Europe stagnate at below 6 percent in the first two months of the year after a setback in 2013 when it fell to 6 percent from the previous year's record high of 6.2 percent. (Yonhap)