Hyundai Motor sells 1 mn electric vehicles worldwide

In 11 years since Hyundai Motor Group started selling electric vehicles (EVs), the cumulative sales volume of EVs in the global market has finally surpassed 1 million units.

According to Hyundai Motor Co. on Tuesday, the cumulative sales number of domestic and overseas EVs by Hyundai and Kia Corp. since the launch of the first electric vehicle in 2011 until the end of 2022 was 1,022,284 units (based on factory delivery figures). Hyundai sold 601,448 units (including luxury brand Genesis), and Kia sold 420,836.

The first electric vehicle Hyundai Motor produced was the BlueOn, which began trial sales in South Korea in Jul. 2011. The annual EV sales, which started with 236 units that year, were in the thousands by 2014, but thanks to the increase in Soul EV sales, it exceeded 10,000 units for the first time in 2015. In 2017, sales volume doubled, centering on the IONIQ Electric, opening a full-fledged electric vehicle era.

Beginning in 2019, electric models of small sports utility vehicles (SUVs) such as the Kona Electric and the Niro EV performed well in the European market, resulting in a significant increase in overseas sales, reaching a peak of 100,000 units in a year.

The best-selling EV model was the Kona Electric (256,907 units), followed by the Niro EV (200,302), the IONIQ 5 (165,637), and the EV6 (112,893). In addition to passenger cars, small commercial EVs such as the Porter Electric (45,384) and the Bongo EV (31,458), which are sold in the domestic market only, also showed steady growth.

Leading models such as the IONIQ 5 and EV6 are recognized for their high commercial value, such as being ranked top in the evaluation of major automobile magazines and being selected as the "Car of the Year" in several countries in the world.

Write to Hyung-Kyu Kim at khk@hankyung.com