European EV drivers buy 200,000 cars in total from Hyundai, Kia

Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors, each, have set a milestone in the European EV market, with a total of more than 200,000 cars sold since their entry into the region.

As of late October, Kia sold 200,984 EV units, said the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association on Sunday. It exceeded the 200,000 threshold eight years after the Soul EV was first released in Europe in 2014. Back in 2019, Kia sold an annual sales of 13,132 EVs, making the first arrival in the 10,000 range. Not only this, selling 39,031 in 2020, it continued to increase sales to 63,419 units last year.

With this news announced, it was confirmed that the two brands under Hyundai Motor Group had sold more than 200,000 EV units in total, each. Hyundai Motor already reached the level in April. As of late October, 237,631 Hyundai EVs were sold in the European market. The bestselling model of Hyundai in Europe is the KONA EV (145,144 units), followed by the IONIQ EV (49,241) and the IONIQ 5 (43,246). On Kia's side, the Niro EV (121,852), the Soul EV (46,791), and the EV6 (32,341) were the top three popular choices for European car buyers.

In addition, the total number of EVs sold a year by Hyundai and Kia in Europe is expected to set a new record high this year. Selling a total of 135,408 units last year in Europe, Hyundai Motor Group has recorded 119,153 units for the first 1o months, only 12 percent short compared to the previous year’s figure. It saw a year-on-year increase of 14 percent from 104,883.


Jae-Hyeng Kim monami@donga.com