SEOUL– Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea’s biggest carmaker, said Tuesday its sales rose 4 percent last month from a year earlier despite an extended chip shortage.
Hyundai sold a total of 347,340 vehicles in December, up from 333,977 units a year earlier on steady sales of high-end models, the company said in a statement.
Domestic sales climbed 6.5 percent to 70,387 units from 66,112 during the period, while overseas sales were up 3.4 percent to 276,953 from 267,865, the statement said.
Hyundai said the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic, higher raw material prices, higher interest rates and the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) remain major worries for the automobile industry.
The IRA excludes electric vehicles built outside North America from tax credits. The new law is widely expected to deal a blow to Hyundai Motor and its smaller affiliate Kia Corp., as they produce EVs at domestic plants for export to the United States.
For all of 2022, its sales inched up 1.4 percent to 3,944,579 autos from 3,890,726 a year earlier.
The maker of the Sonata sedan and the Palisade SUV set a sales goal of 4.32 million units, including overseas sales of 3.54 million units — in global markets in 2023.
Source: Yonhap News Agency