Hyundai Motor Group’s global electric vehicle (EV) sales have exceeded 1 million, 11 years since the launch of its first EVs, according to the company, Tuesday.
The group’s total EV sales stood at 1,022,284 vehicles last year. Hyundai Motor Company sold 601,448 vehicles, including its luxury brand Genesis, while Kia sold 420,836.
“Thanks to the support of our customers, we achieved 1 million vehicle sales. We are grateful,” a Hyundai Motor Group official said. “We will continue to strive for customer satisfaction with vehicles that possess good marketability.”
Its first EV the BlueOn began trial sales in Korea in July 2011. Its annual EV sales, which had been just a mere 236 that year, were in the thousands by 2014. It exceeded 10,000 vehicle sales in 2015 with the expansion of Soul EV sales. The sales volume doubled in 2017, centering on the IONIQ Electric model.
Since 2019, electric models of small SUVs such as the Kona Electric and the Niro EV have been performing well in the European market, resulting in a significant increase in overseas sales and pulling the annual sales figure up over 100,000.
In 2021, the group released the IONIQ 5, EV6 and GV60 EV-dedicated models with the E-GMP system followed by the release of the first IONIQ 6 electric sedan last year, accelerating both domestic and overseas sales.
As a result, the sales volume increased by more than 100,000 cars last year compared with the previous year, thereby the cumulative number of Hyundai EVs sold has exceeded 1 million. The best-selling EV model was the Kona Electric with 256,907 vehicles sold, followed by the Niro EV with 200,302, the IONIQ 5 with 165,637 and the EV6 with 112,893.
Small commercial EVs such as the Porter Electric truck sold 45,384 vehicles and the Bongo EV sold 31,458 vehicles. Both vehicles are available only in Korea where they have shown steady sales figures.
Key models such as the IONIQ 5 and EV6 are recognized for their high marketability, ranking top in a number of evaluations by major car magazines around the world and being selected as Car of the Year in various parts of the world.
The number of Hyundai’s EV models also increased from just one in 2011, the first year of EV production, to 15 last year. The production base has also expanded overseas. Its plant in China is producing models for the local market while factories in India and the Czech Republic are also producing the Kona Electric and other models. Last year, the company’s Indonesian plant started producing the IONIQ 5, and this year, the electrified version of the GV70 will also be put into production at a plant in the U.S. state of Alabama.