Kia overtakes Hyundai in US EV market driven by SUVs

Kia Corp., South Korea’s No. 2 carmaker after sister company Hyundai Motor Co., is racing ahead in the sports utility vehicle (SUV) and electric car segments.

It overtook Hyundai in the US electric vehicle market in the second quarter of this year to claim the No. 3 spot in terms of market share. It controlled 5.4% of the US EV market in the second quarter, more than double the 2.4% it claimed in the year prior.

Kia sold 17,980 EVs in the world’s No. 2 automobile market in the April-June quarter, a whopping 135% surge from the 7,636 EVs it sold there in the same period last year, according to Kelley Blue Book, an automotive research company.

In the domestic market, the Korean carmaker has been raising its presence as well, also led by SUVs.

Its outlook appears bright as it is slated to release the compact electric SUV EV3 and the mid-size electric sedan EV4 in the coming months.

Its sibling Hyundai Motor also performed well in the US market. It saw its EV sales jumping 21.5 on-year to 16,815 units in the US in the second quarter, although its market share came to 5.1% there, slightly below Kia’s.

The sales growth by the two carmakers under Hyundai Motor Group came at the expense of top player Tesla Inc.’s decline. The indisputable No. 1 EV maker saw its market share inch down to 49.7% in the second quarter.

It marked the first time that Telsa’s market share fell below 50% in the US EV segment since 2018.

The EV9, Kia’s flagship electric SUV, drove its sales growth. The bulky six-seat SUV caught on among US drivers.

Kia's EV sales in the first half of 2024
	US (in units)	Worldwide (in units)
EV9	9,671	19,297
EV6	N/A	35,890
Niro EV	N/A	28,124
Total EV sales for Kia	N/A	98,060
(Source: Kia, Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association)

SORENTO LEADS DOMESTIC SALES HIGHER

On its home turf, Kia's market share of 34.6% in the first half represented its highest level since it was placed under Hyundai Motor Group in 1999.

Kia's sales in South Korea
	H1, 2024	H1, 2023
Sales in units	275,021	292,823
Market share	34.6%	32.8%
(Source: Kia, Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association)

The Kia Sorento SUV was the most sold passenger car in the first half of this year in South Korea. The Carnival multi-purpose vehicle and the mid-size SUV Sportage came in second and fourth, respectively.

The subcompact SUV Seltos ranked seventh after it recently unveiled a Seltos variant.

Kia's domestic sales by model (in units)
Sorento	49,588
Carnival	44,868
Sportage	39,299
Seltos	29,202
(Source: Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association)

Later this year, Kia is poised to roll out facelifts of the EV6 and the Sportage, as well as an upgraded model of the K8.

Write to Jae-Fu Kim at hu@hankyung.com
 

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.