Global Sales Leader
Hyundai Motor Group ranked third in the global car sales standings last year, following Toyota and Volkswagen. This marked the first time Hyundai Motor Group has joined the Big 3 Club and in 12 years since the Korean carmaker beat Ford in 2010, taking fifth place.
According to data from automotive groups on March 15, Hyundai Motor Group sold a total of 6,845,000 units worldwide last year, following Japan’s Toyota Group (10,483,000 units) and Germany’s Volkswagen Group (8,481,000 units). This means that the Korean automotive group came in third in global sales for the first time in 2022. Hyundai Motor Group was followed by the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance (6,157,000 units) among France-based Renault and Japan-based Nissan and Mitsubishi, U.S.-based GM (5,939,000 units), and the Stellantis Group (5,839,000 units), a combination of Fiat Chrysler, Peugeot, and Citroen Group.
Hyundai Motor Group’s global sales ranking has steadily risen over the past 20 years. The Korean automaker had started in tenth place in 2000 and continued to rise through the rankings. It entered the top 5 group for the first time in 2010, then beating U.S.-based Ford.
Hyundai Motor Group, which had to stay in fifth place for many years due to fierce competition between automakers, rose to fourth place in 2020 when the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) hit the world. In 2021, it slid to fifth place, but within a year, it jumped by two notches to third place.
Hyundai Motor Group was the only carmaker to enjoy sales growth last year, even when other automakers suffered decreases in sales due to a semiconductor shortage. Last year, Hyundai Motor Group posted a year-on-year sales growth rate of 2.7 percent. On the other hand, Toyota saw -1.1 percent, Volkswagen -1.1 percent, Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi -14.1 percent, and GM -5.7 percent. All of them posted sales drops. In particular, Hyundai Motor overtook Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, which logged a sales decline of more than 10 percent.
Paradoxically, other automakers suffered from a shortage of automotive semiconductors, which helped Hyundai Motor Group join the Big 3 club. Other contributors for the group were an increase in sales of the Genesis, a luxury brand of the group, and the group’s employment of an effective strategy to lead the eco-friendly car market with electric vehicles.
Hyundai Motor Group fared particularly well overseas. Last year, its market share in the U.S. came in at 10.8 percent, reaching the 10 percent range for the first time. It also recorded the highest-ever market share (9.4 percent) in Europe.
However, the gap between the third place holder and the sixth place holder in sales rankings was only one million units, so it will be a big challenge for Hyundai Motor Group to defend its third place this year, analysts say. Although the semiconductor shortage crisis has been alleviated, as demand shrinks due to the so-called 3 highs (high interest rates, high inflation, and high exchange rates), it is expected to negatively affect the automobile industry.
The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the European Union’s Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) are also putting pressure on Hyundai Motor Group’s local production in the United States and the EU. However, analysts positively view the fact that Hyundai Motor Group’s transition to electrification has been progressing rapidly as the IONIQ 5 and EV6 equipped with the group’s electric vehicle platform E-GMP swept the car of the year awards.