Hyundai, Kia close in on Toyota with record US sales

Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp., under South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group, posted their largest-ever sales for February in the US, narrowing a gap with their major Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp.

The buoyant February results compared to a decline in Hyundai Motor Group's electric vehicle sales in the world's largest economy last month, following the introduction of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) last year.

In February, Hyundai and Kia sold a combined 122,111 units in the US, a 16.2% increase on-year, according to the companies.

The figure marked their largest-ever US sales in February and beat their January sales of 103,984 units.

By contrast, Japanese carmakers reported a 3.6% drop on average in US sales last month from a year earlier.

Toyota saw its February sales decrease 2.4% on-year to 158,709 units, with Honda’s US sales down 1.4% to 83,257 units, according to automobile industry sources.

Car sales of the two Hyundai Motor Group units have been on an upward trend in the US since August of last year.

In February, Hyundai's US sales increased 9.6% on-year to 61,252 units, driven by eco-friendly hybrid models and the luxury brand Genesis. The Tucson SUV was its most popular model in the US.

Its affiliate Kia sold 60,859 units in the country, up 23.7% on-year, led by the K3 mid-size sedan.

For EVs, however, both Hyundai and Kia reported a 14.1% drop to 5,091 units in US sales last month.

Particularly, Kia’s flagship EV model EV6 saw its US sales plunge 31.4% on-year. The EV6 made its US debut in February of last year.

Under the IRA, EV makers must use batteries with a certain percentage of key materials produced in North America or its free trade partners for their cars to be eligible for the tax credit of up to $7,500 per unit.

Write to Han-Shin Park at phs@hankyung.com

Yeonhee Kim edited this article