Hyundai, Kia’s green car exports hit record in 2024

Hyundai Motor Co. and its sibling Kia Corp. together shipped a record-high number of eco-friendly cars to overseas markets last year thanks to strong demand for their hybrid models amid the prolonged electric vehicle chasm.

South Korea’s top and second-top carmakers under Hyundai Motor Group exported 707,853 units of green cars in 2024, up 3% from the previous year, Hyundai Motor Group announced on Tuesday. 

That marked their record-high eco-friendly car deliveries to overseas markets, breaking their prior record of 687,420 units in 2023 and accounting for 32.5% of the duo's total car exports. In 2020, their green car outbound shipments stood at 17.3%.

Hybrid cars drove their robust green car exports last year, with an addition of more than 120,000 units from a year ago, according to the company.

Their hybrid car exports jumped 44.6% on-year to 397,200 units in 2024, making up 56.1% of their entire eco-friendly car shipments abroad.

Amid the prolonged EV chasm, Hyundai Motor and Kia fared better than expected thanks to the expansion of hybrid models and a flexible manufacturing approach with prompt changes in production lines to produce more hybrids.  

The most popular green car model abroad was the Hyundai Tucson Hybrid selling 93,547 units, followed by the Hyundai KONA Hybrid with 70,353 units and the Kia Niro Hybrid with 69,545 units.  

The best-selling EV was Hyundai Motor’s IONIQ 5, with 68,227 units sold overseas.

HYUNDAI AND KIA CAR EXPORTS AGAIN SURPASS $50 BILLION

The Korean auto duo shipped a total of 2,180,698 units worth $53.36 billion to overseas markets in 2024.

It was the second year in a row for them to export more than 2 million units totaling more than $50 billion.

Their combined car exports accounted for 7.8% of Korea’s entire export value of $683.8 billion last year and 75.4% of the country’s total outbound car shipments.

Their brisk exports were led by sport utility vehicles, making up nearly 70% of their total exports.

The pair's best-selling cars were Hyundai's Avante selling 231,069 units, the KONA with 222,292 units and the Tucson with 151,171 units.

The Korean car makers also succeeded in diversifying their export markets.

The US was the biggest export destination for Hyundai Motor and Kia cars with a 55.6% share, followed by Europe with 18.7%, Asia Pacific with 9.1%, the Middle East and Africa with a combined  9.1% and Latin America with 5.2%.

Earlier this year, Hyundai Motor and Kia said their total global sales for 2024 reached 7.23 million units, ranking them No. 3 in global auto sales thanks to brisk sales of green cars and SUVs.

They target selling a combined 7.39 million units worldwide this year with a greater focus on premium cars.

To offset the EV market slump, Hyundai Motor and Kia will enhance their hybrid lineup by rolling out hybrid models of compact, large-size and luxury sedans, Hyundai Motor Group said in a statement. 

But they will also continue to diversify their EV lineup. Hyundai Motor plans to release the all-electric three-row SUV EV IONIQ 9 this year, while Kia is set to launch the EV3, EV5 and EV4. 

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

Sookyung Seo edited this article.