Overtaking Ford

 

Hyundai Motor Co. and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors Corp. ranked fourth in the world in sales of environmentally friendly vehicles for 2015. With releasing diverse new products this year, including the its first eco-friendly vehicle Ioniq, the company is expected to round out the top three in the global market.

According to industry sources on January 19, Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors sold a total of 73,746 environmentally friendly cars last year that include 64,533 hybrid vehicles, 8,712 electric fuel-cell vehicles, 256 hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles and 245 plug-in hybrid vehicles. Accordingly, Hyundai and Kia ranked fourth in the global green car market, overtaking Ford.

Sales of Hyundai-Kia Motors’ eco-friendly vehicles have been continuously increasing every year from 30,607 units in 2011, 60,087 units in 2012 and 64,262 units in 2013 to 70,184 units in 2014.

Based on the January-November sales data in the global market last year, Toyota ranked first with 987,000 units, followed by Honda with 217,000 units, Renault-Nissan with 74,000 units, Hyundai-Kia Motors with 66,000 units and Ford with 63,000 units. The ranking had not changed in December. In 2014, Hyundai and Kia came in fifth with sales of 70,000 units, following Toyota with 1.18 million units, Honda with 273,000 units, Renault-Nissan with 95,000 units and Ford with 87,000 units.

The two South Korean carmakers are planning to strengthen its position as a global green car maker in the future. Hyundai and Kia plan to develop a total of 26 environmentally friendly vehicles until 2020, with an aim to raise their sales ratio from the current 2 percent to 10 percent.

This year, they are counting on the Ioniq hybrid, the first electric car model which is recently released. Based on cumulative sales in the global market last year, the hybrid car market accounted for 78 percent of the total eco-friendly car market. Although the electric vehicle market is rapidly growing, the market share is still just 13 percent. Hyundai Motor is planning to compete with Toyota, which currently has an over 70 percent share in the hybrid car market, with the Ioniq.

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