Hyundai, Kia see EU sales boom in April

Hyundai Motor and Kia, which together form the world’s fifth-largest carmaker in sales, saw their sales in Europe more than quadruple from a year earlier, reflecting a bounce back from the low-base effect from the COVID-19 pandemic, data showed Thursday.

The two automobile affiliates of South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate Hyundai Motor Group, sold a combined 78,495 units in the European market in April, up 317.3 percent from the same period last year, officials said, citing figures compiled by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.

Of the two, it was Kia which displayed steeper growth, expanding its sales volume by 338.2 percent on-year to 42,408 units, while Hyundai Motor logged a 295.3 percent growth to 36,087 units sold during the same period.

Throughout the given period, the European car market grew 255.9 percent on-year. Both Hyundai and Kia saw their EU market share rise slightly -- 0.3 percentage point and 0.8 percentage point, respectively.

Among Hyundai Motor’s models, sport utility vehicle Tucson topped the list, with 12,357 units sold in April, followed by Kona and i20. For Kia, the bestselling model was its hatchback Ceed, followed by SUV models Sportage and Niro.

In the eco-friendly hybrid and all-electric group, Niro was the most popular, with 3,641 orders for the hybrid version and 3,368 for the all-electric version.

As of end-April, the two carmakers saw their accumulated sales in Europe rise 24.9 percent on-year, largely on the back of the car market boom in the region, officials added.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)