Hyundai Motor Group, which controls both Hyundai Motor and Kia Corp., ranked seventh globally, posting sales of 378,462 electric vehicles (EVs), battery electric vehicles (BEVs), plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) and hydrogen fuel cell cars sold worldwide from January to September this year. Including sales of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), the Korean automotive group rises to fourth place globally with 963,544 units.
Global automobile sales reached 64.226 million units from January to September this year, according to a report on global EV sales in the first three quarters of 2023 published by the Korea Automobile and Mobility Association (KAMA) on Nov. 29. Among these, sales of EVs hit 10,037,000 units, accounting for 15.6% of the total. It was a 39.3% increase from 7,207,000 units in the same period of last year and similar to the annual sales volume (10,948,000 units) in 2022.
The most common type of EVs was BEVs with 7.23 million units. This was followed by PHEVs at 2,799,000 units, followed by fuel cell EVs at 8,000 units. HEV sales amounted to 5,767,000 units.
By region, China logged the largest sales volume at 6.264 million units (an increase of 37.8% from 2022). It accounted for 62.4% of global EV sales. This was followed by Europe with 2,193,000 units (29.7%) and the United States with 1,034,000 units (an increase of 56.9%). China (an increase of 62.4%), Europe (21.8%), and the United States (10.3%) accounted for 94.5% of the global electric vehicle market. In addition, Korea and Japan recorded 125,000 units (a decrease of 2.3%) and 105,000 units (an increase of 88.5%), respectively. Among these regions, Korea was the only one where EV sales shrank compared to the previous year.
In terms of sales volume by company, China’s BYD ranked first with 2,146,999 units. Second place was taken by Tesla based the United States, which sold 1,580,134 units. The global electric vehicle market shares of the two companies were 21.4% and 15.8%, respectively, for a combined 37.2%. They were followed by Germany’s Volkswagen Group (654,991 units), China’s Geely Group (533,588 units) which owns Volvo, America’s Stellantis (408,199 units), and China’s SAIC (385,630 units). Hyundai Motor Group sold 378,462 units, standing seventh after SAIC.
Tesla (1,580,134 units), BYD (1,103,411 units) and Volkswagen Group (501,915 units) came in first to third in BEV sales. Hyundai Motor Group grabbed eighth place with 293,767 units. BYD ranked first in PHEV sales with 1.04 million units and Hyundai Motor Group nabbed 10th place with 80,422 units.
In HEV sales, Japan’s Toyota ranked first with 1,962,481 units, accounting for 34% of the market share. Second place went to Hyundai Motor Group, which sold 585,082 units (a 10.1% market share). Including HEV sales, Hyundai Motor Group’s sales ranking rose from seventh to fourth place in the global electric vehicle market.