Hyundai Motor Co. and its smaller affiliate Kia Corp. said Wednesday their vehicle sales in Europe rose 5.2 percent last month from a year earlier, helped by robust sales of their SUV and electric models.
Hyundai and Kia sold a total of 96,672 vehicles in Europe in July, up from 91,922 units a year ago, the companies said, citing data from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA).
They accounted for 9.5 percent of the European passenger vehicle market in July following Volkswagen Group with a share of 27.4 percent and Stellantis' 15.7 percent, according to the ACEA data.
But their July market share fell from 10.5 percent in the same month of last year.
Their bestselling models include Kia's Sportage SUV, Hyundai's Tucson SUV, the Kia Niro EV and EV6 SUV, and Hyundai's all-electric IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 6.
In July, new registrations of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in the European Union jumped 61 percent on-year at 115,971 units. The share of BEVs rose to 13.6 percent from 9.8 percent during the same period, the data showed.
Hyundai and Kia's BEV sales jumped 33 percent on-year to 13,131 units in July.
From January to July, the two South Korean carmakers sold 672,015 autos in Europe, up 3.6 percent from 648,946 units in the same period of last year. But their share also declined to 8.8 percent from 10 percent.
Source: Yonhap News Agency