Hyundai Motor Group’s three car brands -- Hyundai, Kia and Genesis -- sold 173,428 units in the U.K. passenger car market in the first 10 months of this year, up 8.7 percent year on year, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) on Nov. 20. Their market share stood at 10.8 percent.
If their cumulative sales growth rate through October holds through the end of this year, Hyundai Motor Group’s U.K. sales in 2023 will surpass the previous record of 186,625 units set in 2017. Last year’s total sales hit 181,610 units.
By brand, Hyundai Motor sold 75,456 units in October, ranking eighth in the U.K. market where more than 45 brands competed. The Tucson, Hyundai’s flagship sport utility vehicle (SUV), is the sixth-best-selling car in the United Kingdom with sales of 29,990 units through October.
Kia, which sold 96,784 units in the United Kingdom during the same period, came in fourth. Kia’s SUV Sportage is leading Kia’s sales in the United Kingdom. So far this year it has sold 31,575 units through October. This sales performance enabled Kia to grab fourth place in the U.K. car sales rankings.
Hyundai Motor Group’s strong sales performance in the United Kingdom has been attributed to the company’s ability to capitalize on the U.K. market’s rapid transition into eco-friendly vehicles.
According to the SMMT, battery electric vehicles (BEVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs) accounted for 36 percent (57,895 units) of the 1,605,437 vehicles sold in the U.K. automotive market from January to October 2023. This is a year-on-year increase of 3.5 percentage points. They were broken down to 16.3 percent for BEVs, 12.6 percent for HEVs, and 7.1 percent for PHEVs.
Hyundai Motor Group sold 84,442 eco-friendly cars (BEVs and HEVs) in the United Kingdom in the first 10 months of this year, up 6.7 percent from the same period of 2022. During the period, BEV sales grew by 4.2 percent year-on-year to 28,456 units, and HEV sales 8.2 percent to 51,886 units in the United Kingdom.