Hyundai, Kia global sales rise in August despite chip shortage

Seoul: Hyundai Motor, South Korea’s biggest carmaker, said on Thursday that its sales rose 12 percent in August from a year earlier despite an extended chip shortage.

Its subsidiary Kia’s sales also went up 10 percent last month from a year earlier despite an extended chip shortage.

Hyundai sold a total of 334,794 vehicles in August, up from 300,004 units a year earlier on robust overseas demand for its models, the company said in a statement.

Domestic sales fell 3.5 percent to 49,224 units from 51,034 during the period, while overseas sales climbed 15 percent to 285,570 from 248,970, reports Yonhap news agency.

To prop up sales in the second half, Hyundai said it plans to launch the IONIQ 6 all-electric model and other competitive models in global markets.

The IONIQ 6 is the second model embedded with Hyundai Motor Group’s own EV-only electric-global modular platform (E-GMP) following the IONIQ 5 launched in April last year.

Hyundai plans to introduce the platform-based IONIQ 7 SUV model in 2024. For its all-electric models, Hyundai uses alphanumeric names like its bigger rivals, such as BMW, whose models are named Series No. 1-8.

Hyundai has set a sales goal of 4.32 million units for this year, higher than the 3.89 million sold last year.

Meanwhile, Kia sold a total of 239,887 vehicles in August, up from 217,226 units a year ago on robust overseas demand for its SUV models.

Kia aims to sell 3.15 million vehicles globally this year.