Hyundai Motor Co. and its smaller affiliate Kia Corp. said Monday their vehicle sales in the United States rose 6 percent in August from a year earlier, helped by robust sales of SUVs and electric vehicles.
Hyundai and Kia sold a total of 143,646 vehicles in the U.S. last month, up from 135,526 units a year ago. Hyundai figures include the sales results of its independent Genesis brand.
Hyundai’s vehicle sales rose 3 percent on-year to 71,499 units, with Genesis’ sales jumping 26 percent to 6,453 and Kia’s increasing 9.2 percent to 72,147, according to sales data released by the companies.
In August, sales of the two South Korean carmakers’ environmentally friendly vehicles, including gasoline hybrid, all-electric and hydrogen fuel-cell electric models, jumped 87 percent on-year to 27,900 units last month.
From January to August, their overall vehicle sales in the U.S. climbed 15 percent to 1,107,613 autos from 966,684 units in the same period of last year.
Hyundai and Kia have set a combined sales goal of 7.52 million units this year, up 9.8 percent from the 6.85 million units they sold last year.
Hyundai and Kia aim to sell 4.32 million autos and 3.2 million units in global markets this year, respectively.
The two together form the world’s third-largest carmaker by sales after Toyota Motor Corp. and Volkswagen Group.
Source: Yonhap News Agency