(Tables provided by the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers, ACEA. Resale and archiving prohibited).
SEOUL, 06 Feb. (Yonhap) — Hyundai Motor Co. and sister company Kia Corp. saw their combined market share grow the strongest in the European car market last year thanks to strong sales of environmentally friendly vehicles, data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) showed on Monday.
The Hyundai Motor Group, to which the country’s top two automakers belong, accounted for 9.4 percent of passenger cars sold in 30 European countries last year, including member countries of the European Union (EU) and the Association European Free Trade Union (EFTA), as well as the United Kingdom, up 0.75 percentage points compared to the previous year. It thus posted the highest growth rate, followed by the Toyota group (+0.69 point), Ford (+0.17 pt), the Renault group (+0.12 pt), the Mercedes-Benz group ( +0.04 pt) and Honda (+0.01 pt).
The number one in the European automotive industry, the Volkswagen group, for its part represented 24.72% of the European market, down 0.4 percentage points compared to the year 2021, while the number two, Stellantis, occupied 18.18% of vehicles sold in Europe, a decline of 2.01 percentage points. In addition, eight other automakers saw their market share shrink in the European market last year, including Jaguar Land Rover Group, Volvo, Mitsubishi, Mazda, BMW Group and Nissan, ACEA said.
The European car market fell by 4.1% to 11.28 million units last year mainly due to the shortage of car chips, the war between Russia and Ukraine and global inflation, according to ACEA data.
Despite this unfavorable economic situation, Hyundai-Kia’s sales increased by 4.2% to 1.06 million units in Europe, placing the Hyundai Motor group still in fourth position in the ranking of car manufacturers. Its market share also exceeded the 9% mark for the first time, closely squeezing the French group Renault, in third position, with only a gap of some 500 units.
In particular, the South Korean automotive group saw its sales of electric vehicles jump 5.9% to 143,460 units last year thanks in particular to the electric model Niro, which sold 38,122 copies. For this year, Hyundai Motor has set itself the objective of increasing its sales in Europe by 4% to 59,300 vehicles and Kia by 4.2% to 57,000 units.
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