Hyundai, Kia US car sales dip in April; EVs outperform

Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp., under Hyundai Motor Group, suffered a drop in US car sales last month for a second month in a row, while rising sales of eco-friendly models such as electric vehicles and hybrid cars offset the decline, the automotive group said on Thursday.

Their combined sales in the US slid 3.5% to 139,865 units in April from the year prior. But the group said the decrease was a temporary phenomenon due to the high base effect after robust sales in the same period of last year.

Customers also delayed purchases of Hyundai and Kia cars before the release of revamped recreational vehicles, it added.

Hyundai Motor reported a 3.3% decline on-year to 74,111 units in US sales last month, with sales of its premium brand Genesis down 6.0% to 5,508 units. It marked the first time that sales of Genesis-brand cars decreased on an annual basis since October 2022.

Sales of Kia cars shrank 3.6% to 65,754 units in the world’s No. 2 automobile market in April.

ECO-FRIENDLY MODELS MAKE UP 20% OF US SALES

Meanwhile, eco-friendly cars outperformed.

Hyundai Motor and Kia sold 26,989 units of eco-friendly models together in April, up 9.3% from a year before. That made up nearly 20% of the two brands’ car sales in the US.

Hybrid cars, electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell EVs represented 11.8%, 64.5% and 18.8% of the total, respectively.

STRONG DEMAND FOR HYUNDAI HYBRID CARS

Of the two carmakers' eco-friendly vehicle sales, Hyundai sold 16,274 units, up 26.1% from the year prior and its highest-ever sales of those types of cars for a single month.

The volume of its hybrid car sales reached the 10,000-unit milestone in April for the first time in its history. Hybrid models made up 62% of its eco-friendly car sales in the US last month.
 

KIA'S EV SALES GROWTH

By contrast, Kia suffered a 9.2% drop on-year to 10,715 units in overall eco-friendly car sales in the US last month. But its EV sales grew, achieving the 5,000 milestone, the first time its EV sales hit that mark for a single month in the US.

Particularly, the all-electric SUV EV9 sold 1,572 units in April, its most ever monthly since its release.

SUVs, COMPACT CARs

The Tucson compact sports utility vehicle was the best-selling model of Hyundai cars, selling 15,685 units in the US in April.

The Avante subcompact car and the Santa Fe mid-size SUV came in next, selling 10,102 units and 9,728 units, respectively.

For Kia, the Sportage compact SUV, the K3 subcompact and the Telluride mid-size SUV topped the list of best-selling models with sales of 13,739 units, 12,360 units and 8,949 sales, respectively.

By comparison, Japanese carmakers such as Toyota, Honda and Subaru saw steady to increased sales growth in the US last month, except for Mazda Motor, which reported a 3.8% fall in US sales last month.

Write to Jung-Eun Shin at newyearis@hankyung.com

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.