SEOUL, March 2 (Yonhap) — Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea’s biggest carmaker, said Thursday its sales rose 7.3 percent last month from a year earlier despite an extended chip shortage.
Hyundai sold a total of 327,718 vehicles in February, up from 305,331 units a year earlier on strong demand for its SUV models, the company said in a statement.
Domestic sales jumped 23 percent to 65,015 units from 53,010 during the period, while overseas sales were up 4.1 percent to 262,703 from 252,321, the statement said.
From January to February, its sales rose 8.5 percent to 637,841 autos from 587,987 during the same period of last year.
Hyundai said the extended COVID-19 pandemic, high interest rates and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) remain major worries for the automobile industry this year.
The IRA excludes electric vehicles built outside North America from tax credits. The new law could 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.
The maker of Sonata sedans and Palisade SUVs 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