Hyundai, Kia surpass 100,000 global EV sales in Q1

Hyundai Motor Group's electric vehicle (EV) sales have exceeded 100,000 units in the first quarter of this year, driven by the strong sales of its flagship EV models. According to Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp., the two companies' combined global EV sales from January to March were 135,499 units, up 49.7% from the same period last year.

While domestic sales rose by 36.1% to 30,982 units, overseas sales surged by 93.4% to 104,517 units compared to the same period last year. Hyundai's IONIQ 5 and Kia's EV6, the flagship EV models of each brand, both surpassed 20,000 units in overseas sales in the first quarter.

The Kia Niro EV (19,207 units) and Hyundai IONIQ 6 (15,010 units) also exceeded 10,000 units in overseas sales in the first quarter, and the luxury brand Genesis achieved overseas sales of about 3,000 units with models such as GV60 (2,616 units) and G80 electric models (477 units).

The combined global EV sales target for Hyundai and Kia this year is 588,000 units, more than 200,000 units higher than last year's sales volume of around 371,800 units. Hyundai and Kia announced their EV sales targets earlier this year, with Hyundai aiming for 330,000 EV sales and Kia targeting 258,000 units.

Although the first quarter after the year-end is typically a slow sales season, EV sales tend to pick up since February when government and local subsidies are confirmed to be in place. As a result, industry experts expect Hyundai and Kia to easily achieve their EV sales targets this year.

On April 11, the Hyundai Motor Group announced plans to invest 24 trillion won ($18.3 billion) in the domestic EV industry until 2030. The group aims to increase the annual production of domestic EV to 1.51 million units by 2030 and become one of the top-three global EV sellers with a global production volume of 3.64 million units.

Kia will begin expanding its domestic EV production base next year, such as by sequentially converting the production lines of its Gwangmyeong plant into EV-only lines. Hyundai will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for an EV-only plant on the premises of its Ulsan plant later this year.

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