Hyundai, Kia's EV exports set to exceed 100,000 units this year

SEOUL, Nov. 26 (Yonhap) -- Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp. said Thursday they are set to export over 100,000 electric vehicles this year on growing demand for environment-friendly cars.

Hyundai and Kia shipped a combined 98,505 EVs from January to October, jumping 71 percent from 57,517 units during the same period of last year, according to the companies.

"Stricter emission rules in Europe drove up demand for all-electric and less-emitting models," a Hyundai spokesman said.

Hyundai's Kona Electric accounted for 42 percent, or 41,384 units, of the two carmakers' overall EV shipments in the first 10 months.

In the July-September period, Hyundai and Kia ranked fifth with a combined market share of 7 percent in the global EV markets, following Tesla Motors Inc., Volkswagen AG, Renault S.A., Nissan Motor Corp. and SAIC Motor Corp., the data showed.

Hyundai Motor Group aims to sell 1 million EVs in 2025 to achieve a market share of over 10 percent in the global EV markets.

The world's fifth-biggest automotive group is pushing to mass-produce an EV model based on its own EV platform called the electric-global modular platform (E-GMP) next year.

The new EV model can be fully charged in only 20 minutes and can travel up to 450 kilometers on a single charge.

Hyundai and Kia plan to unveil 44 eco-friendly vehicles, including 23 all-electric ones under the three separate brands of Hyundai, Hyundai's independent brand Genesis and Kia by 2025.

Currently, the group's pure electric models are Hyundai's Kona EV and Ioniq Electric and Kia's Soul EV and Niro EV. An all-electric model under the Genesis brand is not available for now.

kyongae.choi@yna.co.kr
(END)