Hyundai, Kia sell 7.23 mn units together in 2024, eye more sales in 2025

Hyundai Motor Co. and its sibling Kia Corp. have set a target to sell a combined 7.39 million units around the globe this year with greater focus on premium cars and new growth engines. Their delivery of 7.23 million units last year ranked them as the industry's No. 3 in auto sales.

Hyundai Motor and Kia announced in regulatory filings on Friday that they shipped 4.142 million and 3.089 million units, respectively, in 2024. Their total shipments fell short of their goal of 7.44 million units.

Hyundai Motor's global sales were down 1.8% from a year ago, while Kia’s grew 0.1%, driven by its all-time high car shipments since the company’s inception in 1962.

Kia’s previous record-high car sales were 3.087 million units in 2023.

Hyundai Motor and Kia’s car sales abroad in 2024 reached 5.98 million units, accounting for more than two-thirds of their total car sales.

Based on the filings, the Korean auto duo is forecast to have retained its No. 3 position in the global auto market for a third consecutive year last year in terms of sales volume.

Toyota Motor Corp. and Volkswagen Group are expected to hold onto the No. 1 and No. 2 spots after selling about 10 million units and 9 million units, respectively.

EVS, HYBRID CARS AND SUVS DRIVE SALES

Hyundai Motor and Kia are projected to report stellar earnings for 2024 thanks to strong demand for their electric vehicles, hybrid cars and sport utility vehicles, which generate higher margins. 

Moreover, Hyundai Motor Group’s luxury car brand Genesis fared well after delivering about 130,000 units last year.

The Korean automakers are also expected to benefit from the strong US dollar versus the Korean won in earnings in the fourth quarter as they sell more cars abroad than at home, according to an auto industry official.  

For the first nine months of last year, Hyundai Motor posted 11.4 trillion won ($7.7 billion) in operating profit on sales of 128.6 trillion won, while Kia posted 9.6 trillion won in operating profit on sales of 80.3 trillion won.

In 2023, Hyundai posted 15.1 trillion won in operating profit on sales of 162.7 trillion won, while Kia posted 11.6 trillion won in operating profit on sales of 99.8 trillion won.

The official expected both Hyundai Motor and Kia to see double-digit operating profit margins from last year’s business.   

In 2023, Hyundai Motor and Kia reported operating margins of 9.3% and 11.6%, respectively.

HIGHER SALES WITH PREMIUM CARS AND FUTURE GROWTH DRIVERS

The auto duo have set a target to sell 7.39 million units in 2025 — 4.17 million for Hyundai Motor and 3.22 million for Kia.

That is 2.2% higher than last year’s total shipments but lower than last year’s target.

Hyundai Motor Group said the company will focus on ways to retain its position as the world’s third-largest car seller while improving profitability through sales of premium cars, said a company official.

The company will also push to accelerate the development of future mobility technologies for EVs, software-defined vehicles (SDV) and hydrogen fuel-cell cars.

Despite concerns about possible higher taxes on Korean automakers' cars exported to the US under the new Trump administration this year, the outlook for their car sales doesn't look that bad. 

According to the US Department of Energy earlier this week, five EV models by Hyundai Motor and Kia are included in the 25 EV models qualifying for US tax credits in 2025 under the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), boding well for their car sales in the world's third-largest EV market. 

Enactment of the IRA in 2022 marked the first time for the Korean auto duo to enjoy tax breaks for their EVs in the US, the world's second-largest car market.

Write to Jae-Fu Kim at hu@hankyung.com
Sookyung Seo edited this article.