The Hyundai brand is growing share in Europe, boosted by recently introduced and well received electric models. Electric vehicles now comprise 16% of the brand’s European sales.
In the first half of the year, Hyundai Motor achieved a record-breaking 4.7 per cent market share across Europe, up one percentage point compared to last year.
The company also sold 263,005 units in the EU, EFTA and UK in the first half of 2022, an 8.2 per cent increase over the same period in 2021.
Hyundai said it has one of strongest zero-emission vehicle line-ups, with EVs making up 16 per cent of sales.
Hyundai said one of the main drivers for this is the KONA Electric, which began production at Hyundai’s HMMC production plant in Europe in 2020.
Beyond this, Hyundai is confident its share of electrified models sales will continue to grow in the months ahead.
In addition, Hyundai will continue to make investments to drive innovation in the field of electrified mobility. The company’s high-performance N sub-brand recently unveiled RN22e and N Vision 74, two ‘rolling lab’ concepts that will serve as a basis for the continued development of future-focused zero-emissions technologies.
“These outstanding results underline the strength of Hyundai’s product line-up in Europe, particularly in light of a challenging overall market situation,” says Michael Cole, President and CEO of Hyundai Motor Europe. “Just this week we launched IONIQ 6, which will extend our leadership in electrification. This model will further increase the quality and diversity of our sales mix. I believe it will widen our appeal even further and enable us to maintain our edge in a crowded field. While Hyundai is not immune to overall automotive trends, we do expect our market share to continue to rise in the months ahead thanks to our customer-focused offerings.”
Record market shares across European markets
In addition to a record 4.7 per cent market share in Europe, Hyundai also achieved record market shares in the UK, Spain and France in the first six months of 2022.
In the UK, Hyundai models made up 5.1 per cent of all cars sold, an improvement of 1.7 per cent compared to last year. This represented 40,908 new vehicle registrations in the country, up 30.5 per cent compared to the first half of 2021.
In Spain, meanwhile, Hyundai reached a market share of 7.4 per cent, up 1.8 percentage points compared to 2021. This amounted to 30,222 registered vehicles, 18.8 per cent higher compared to the equivalent January-June period last year.
The French market also saw significant success for Hyundai, as the company’s market share rose to 3.1 per cent – an increase of 0.6 percentage points on last year. A total of 23,998 models were sold in the first half of the year, 4.2 per cent higher compared to the first six months of 2021.
Over 70 per cent of Hyundai cars are made in Europe, for Europe at the company’s HAOS and HMMC production plants in Turkey and the Czech Republic, respectively.
HMMC produces 350,000 vehicles per year and has recently undergone a range of enhancements to make it one of the most modern automotive factories in Europe. Earlier this year, it became Hyundai’s first factory worldwide to completely convert its electricity use to renewable energy. Today, HMMC produces almost every type of powertrain variant, including low-to-zero emissions models such as KONA Electric.
Hyundai’s main sales drivers included the traditional best-seller and Czech-built TUCSON, followed by KONA. Other popular models include BEVs such as KONA Electric and IONIQ 5, which is now enjoying its first full year of sales, as well as the company’s i-range.