Kia Sportage speeds up Hyundai’s eco-friendly push

Kia Corp.'s Sportage plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) was recently recognized as the best model in the segment by two influential German auto publications, fueling Hyundai Motor Group’s global eco-friendly automobile market expansion.

Hyundai Motor Group, South Korea’s top automaker with two carmakers – Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia – has sold more than 3 million eco-friendly vehicles since they starting making them. The group was the No. 2 player in the first quarter in the US EV market, the world’s third-largest, after industry giant Tesla Inc.

The Sportage compact sport utility vehicle’s PHEV version topped the list of the segment compiled by the German magazine Auto Motor und Sport. The magazine compared four PHEVs – the Sportage, Toyota Motor Corp.’s RAV4, Opel’s Grandland and Volvo’s XC40 – in terms of body, safety, convenience, powertrain, driving, eco-friendly features and economics.

The Sportage scored 649 points, beating the RAV4's 615 points, the Grandland's 603 points, and the XC40's 566 points.

“Its second row is spacious and it is easy to load,” said the magazine, referring to the Sportage. “It is also equipped with high-end components such as LED (light-emitting diode) headlamps and panoramic curved displays.”

Auto Bild, another German magazine, compared the Sportage and the Grandland. The magazine recognized the Kia SUV as superior to the Opel model, citing smoother steering and interaction between its gasoline engine and electric motor.

“The evaluations by the two industry publications are an important yardstick for customers not only in Germany but all of Europe,” said a Kia official.

GROWING SALES OF ECO-FRIENDLY VEHICLES

Sales of Hyundai and Kia’s eco-friendly models including EVs, hybrid cars, PHEVs and hydrogen vehicles, have been growing. They have sold more than 3 million units of those vehicles by May this year since 2009 when they launched their first eco-friendly model. Eco-friendly vehicles accounted for 14.6% of their total sales volume in the first five months of the year, surging from around 1% in 2016.

Of the Korean models, Hyundai's Kona Electric was the top model with sales of 220,428 units, followed by the Kia Niro EV with sales of 163,884 units. Hyundai sold 105,247 units of its latest all-electric SUV IONIQ 5, while Kia sold 64,924 units of the EV6.

Hyundai and Kia ranked as the No. 2 EV maker in the first quarter in the US. Together they made up 9% of the country’s EV market, beating Volkswagen Group with a 4.6% market share and Ford Motor Co. with 4.5%, according to a CNBC report. Tesla dominated the market with a 75.8% share.

“Hyundai is doing pretty well,” Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Saturday via Twitter.

Hyundai and Kia are expected to enjoy a further rise in demand for EVs, given surging oil prices. They aim to lure more customers with new models – the IONIQ 6 to be unveiled later this year and the EV 9 in April 2023.

Write to Hyung-Kyu Kim at khk@hankyung.com
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.