Hyundai Motor's Tucson SUV / Courtesy of Hyundai Motor
Hyundai Motor Group is widely expected to achieve record annual sales in the United Kingdom on favorable market responses to its diverse eco-friendly vehicle lineup there, the carmaker said Monday.
According to data from the U.K.-based Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), a combined market share of the group’s three car brands — Hyundai Motor, Kia and Genesis — came in at 10.8 percent there between January and October this year, up 8.7 percent from the previous year. They sold a total of 173,428 vehicles there during the same period.
This was fueled by robust sales of its electric vehicles (EV), hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars, according to the group. The automotive group said it benefited from the ongoing global paradigm shift towards eco-friendly vehicles.
Hyundai Motor sold more than 75,400 vehicles during the same period there, and was ranked eighth in the market where a total of 45 carmakers compete. This was up four spots from 2020. Its Tucson SUV was the sixth-best-selling model there, with its sales reaching close to 30,000 for the first 10 months combined.
Kia’s achievement is more noteworthy, placing its name on the list as the fourth-best-selling carmaker there, up five spots from three years earlier. The smaller affiliate of Hyundai Motor sold more than 96,700 vehicles, driven by the growing popularity of its flagship Sportage SUV with more than 31,500 sales during the same period.
Genesis, the luxury brand of the group, clinched annual sales of more than 1,000 vehicles for two consecutive years since 2022. More than 1,180 Genesis cars have been sold in the first 10 months of this year.
According to SMMT, the portion of eco-friendly vehicles in the U.K. is on the gradual rise. Sales for the three aforementioned eco-friendly vehicles accounted for 36 percent out of the total there, up 3.5 percentage points during the same period. But sales for gasoline cars are slowly losing luster, with their portion accounting for 41 percent, down 2.4 percentage points.
Hyundai plans to tap deeper into the market by diversifying its eco-friendly vehicle lineup.
“On top of that, we will keep engaging in more diverse localized marketing campaigns to expand our presence in the market,” a spokesperson for Hyundai Motor said.
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