Hyundai, Kia's European sales reach 79,000 units in February

Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp. reported a 2.3% rise in European sales in February, selling a combined total of 79,130 vehicles, according to data from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) released on Tuesday.

Hyundai Motor's sales increased by 5.6% to 40,051 units, while Kia posted a slight decrease of 0.9%, selling 39,079 vehicles.

Despite the overall growth, both companies experienced a dip in market share in the highly competitive European market.

Hyundai Motor's market share slipped by 0.2 percentage points to 4.0%, and Kia's fell by 0.4 percentage points to 3.9%.

The combined market share of the two automakers now stands at 8.0%, a reduction of 0.6 percentage points from the previous year.

Hyundai Motor's best-selling model in Europe for the month was the Tucson with 8,501 units, followed by the Kona with 5,560 units, and the i10 with 4,148 units.

ACEA has not yet released the top-selling models for Kia.

The sales of Hyundai Motor's eco-friendly models, including hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), were highlighted by the Tucson with 4,129 units, the Kona with 4,049 units, and the IONIQ 5 with 1,036 units.

Write to Jin-Won Kim at jin1@hankyung.com