April 17, 2024

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Hyundai Motor Group’s flagship EV Ioniq 5 (Hyundai Motor Group)

Hyundai Motor Group recorded double-digit market share last year in 10 European countries, stepping up as the fourth-largest carmaker to have sold battery-powered electric vehicles, data showed Wednesday.

Hyundai and its affiliate Kia sold a total of 96,988 EVs with a 10 percent market share in 10 countries including Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden and Spain, according to the US-based automotive market tracker Clean Technica. These markets account for 64 percent of the total EV sales in Western Europe.

Hyundai and Kia each sold 54,906 and 42,082 cars there last year.

Volkswagen came in first in EV sales, selling 248,421 units with a 25.6 percent market share. Stellantis and Tesla each sold 136,345 and 130,251 units, ranking second and third.

The bestselling car model was Tesla Model Y, which sold 78,017 units, followed by 67,049 units of Volkswagen ID.4 and 49,645 units of Tesla Model 3.

Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kona Electric came in eight and ninth, each selling 26,305 and 25,797 units. Kia sold 20,752 Niro EVs and 18,226 EV6s, ranking 14th and 19th.

Hyundai's penetration into the European market is meaningful as the region's consumers have strong loyalty to local car brands, industry insiders said.

Coming in fifth after Hyundai in market share was Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, followed by BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

Chinese automakers Geely Auto and SAIC Motor were placed eighth and ninth. The largest Chinese EV maker BYD ranked 13th with 0.4 percent market share.

As latecomers in the EV industry, Japanese car manufacturing companies including Toyota Mazda and Honda were bottom performers, recording 0.1-0.8 percent market share in the 10 countries.

By Byun Hye-jin (hyejin2@heraldcorp.com)