Hyundai Motor and Kia have achieved a significant milestone in their history of electric vehicles (EVs). Their combined global sales of electric vehicles (EVs) have exceeded 1.5 million units after 12 years of launching their first mass-produced EV, the ‘BlueOn’, in South Korea in July 2011.
As of the end of last year, Hyundai Motor Group reported cumulative sales of 1,538,689 units of EVs, with Hyundai selling 886,653 units and Kia selling 652,036 units.
Last year alone, Hyundai and Kia sold a total of 516,441 electric vehicles worldwide, which was a 38.9% increase from the previous year. Of these, 78.3% were sold outside of South Korea, while only 21.7% were sold domestically. This means that 8 out of every 10 electric vehicles from the Hyundai Group were sold overseas.
The best-selling model was the Hyundai Kona Electric, which was launched in 2018. A total of 327,778 units were sold, including 302,299 units of the first-generation model and 24,479 units of the second-generation model that was released in April of last year. In 2018, the Kona Electric was the first electric car in the domestic market to surpass annual sales of 10,000 units.
The Hyundai Ioniq 5 secured the second spot in the list of best-selling electric vehicles, following the Kona Electric, with 279,375 units sold. Since its launch in Feb. 2021, the Ioniq 5 has exceeded 200,000 cumulative export units by the end of last year.
Within the Hyundai Motor Group, Kia’s Niro EV ranked third in cumulative sales, with a total of 277,048 units sold. The first-generation model, which has been available since 2018, sold 175,501 units, while the second-generation model, launched in May 2022, sold 106,547 units. The Kia EV6 was the next best-selling electric vehicle after the Niro, with 200,905 cumulative sales by the end of last year.
