Hyundai Motor, Kia rank 4th in Europe with record 2023 sales

South Korea’s top automaker Hyundai Motor Group saw its vehicle sales in Europe rise to a fresh record high in 2023, driven by sport utility vehicles and electric cars.

According to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) on Thursday, the automotive group, which owns Korea’s two largest car-making firms – Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp. – sold 1.11 million vehicles last year, up 4.3% from the previous year.

The latest figure surpasses its previous record high of 1.07 million units in 2019.

Hyundai Motor sold 534,170 units in Europe, up 3.1% from the previous year while its sister firm Kia sold 572,297 vehicles, up 5.4% year on year.

With last year’s sales figures, Hyundai and Kia combined ranked fourth, accounting for an 8.6% market share, down from the previous year’s market share of 9.4%.

Volkswagen was the top seller with a 25.9% market share, followed by Stellantis with a 16.6% share. BMW ranked fifth with a 7.1% market share.

TUCSON, KONA, IONIQ EV SERIES

The Korean duo’s car sales in Europe fell below the 1 million unit mark in 2020 amid the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic but have since grown to 1.02 million units in 2021 and 1.06 million in 2022.

Hyundai Motor Group’s strong 2023 sales in Europe were led by SUVs such as the Tucson, which sold 133,685 units last year, followed by the Kona compact SUV (83,028 units) and the i20 hatchback (53,712 units).

Electric vehicles also contributed to the automotive group’s European sales.

The Hyundai Kona Electric sold 32,215 units, followed by the IONIQ 5 crossover (23,907 units) and the IONIQ 6 sedan (10,819 units).

In December alone, Hyundai and Kia sold a combined 77,059 units overall in Europe, up 5.1% from the year-earlier period. Their market share rose by 0.6 percentage point on-year to 7.3%.

Write to Nan-Sae Bin at binthere@hankyung.com


In-Soo Nam edited this article.