Kia EV3 concept
Kia Corp., South Korea’s No. 2 carmaker behind its sister company Hyundai Motor Co., is racing ahead with sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and electric cars.
It overtook Hyundai in the US electric vehicle market in the second quarter of this year to claim No. 2 spot in terms of market share. It controlled 5.4% of the US EV market in the second quarter, more than double the 2.4% it claimed in the year prior.
Kia sold 17,980 EVs in the world’s No. 2 automobile market in the April-June quarter, a whopping 135% surge from the 7,636 EVs it sold there in the same period of last year, according to Kelley Blue Book, an automotive research company.
In the domestic market, the Korean carmaker has been raising its presence, led by SUVs as well.
Its outlook appears bright as it is slated to release the compact electric SUV EV3 and the mid-size electric sedan EV4 in the coming months.
EV6 GT (far left), EV4 concept (second from left), EV5 (center), EV3 concept (second from right), EV9 GT-line (Courtesy of Kia)
Its sibling Hyundai Motor also performed well in the US market. It saw its EV sales jumping 21.5 on-year to 16,815 units in the US in the second quarter, although its market share came to 5.1% there, slightly below Kia’s.
The sales growth by the two carmakers under Hyundai Motor Group came at the expense of top player Tesla Inc.’s decline. The indisputable No. 1 EV maker saw its market share inching down to 49.7% in the second quarter.
It marked the first time that Telsa’s market share fell below 50% in the US EV segment since 2018.
(Graphics by Dongbeom Yun)
EV9, Kia’s flagship electric SUV, drove its sales growth. The bulky six-seat SUV caught on among US drivers.
Kia’s EV sales in the first half of 2024
US (in units)
Worldwide (in units)
EV9
9,671
19,297
EV6
N/A
35,890
Niro EV
N/A
28,124
Total EV sales for Kia
N/A
98,060
(Source: Kia, Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association)
SORENTO LEADS DOMESTIC SALES HIGHER
On home turf, Kia’s market share of 34.6% in the first half represented its highest-ever level since it was placed under the wing of Hyundai Motor Group in 1999.
Kia’s sales in South Korea
H1, 2024
H1, 2023
Sales in units
275,021
292,823
Market share
34.6%
32.8%
(Source: Kia, Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association)
The Kia Sorento SUV was the most-sold passenger car iin the first half of this year in South Korea. The Carnival multi-purpose vehicle and the mid-size SUV Sportage came in second and fourth, respectively.
The subcompact SUV Seltos ranked seventh after it recently unveiled a Seltos variant.
Kia’s domestic sales by model (in units)
Sorento
49,588
Carnival
44,868
Sportage
39,299
Seltos
29,202
(Source: Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association)
Later this year, Kia is poised to roll out the facelifts of EV6 and Sportage, as well as an upgraded model of K8.
By Jae-Fu Kim
hu@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article
