Hyundai, Kia's market share continues to decrease in Chinese market

Sales of Korean automakers Hyundai Motor and Kia have continued to decrease in the Chinese market as their combined market share fell one per cent from 3.1 per cent (2.2 per cent for Hyundai and 0.9 per cent for Kia) to 2.1 per cent (1.4 per cent Hyundai and 0.7 per cent for Kia) in November this year.

This is partly because the retail sales of vehicles in the Chinese market decreased last month by 13 per cent year-on-year to 1,845,000 units. The sales of passenger cars including sedans, SUVs, and MPVs fell 13 per cent to 1,816,000 units and commercial vehicles fell to 28,000 units, just like last year. However, Hyundai and Kia's performance was far below the market average.

Retail sales of Hyundai Motor Beijing fell 42 per cent year-on-year to 26,000 units in November, while that of Dongfeng Kia fell 30 per cent to 13,000 units. The overall sales of Hyundai Motor Group have been significantly falling in the Chinese market since the the 2016 THAAD crisis.

The company launched various new models in the Chinese market including the Genesis brand to boost sales. Genesis has a strong influence in the global electric vehicle (EV) market. Yet, the performance of the company in the world's largest car market has continued to be sluggish, with only 69 units of the strategic EV model Mistra EV released earlier this year, and sold from March to September.

On the contrary, the sales of EV manufacturers such as Tesla and BYD as well as Geely Automobile have been strong. While Tesla and BYD sold 32,000 and 90,000 units respectively in November, their market share was at 1.7 per cent and 5.0 per cent respectively. Sales of Geely, however, fell 12 per cent, but the market share increased by 0.1 points.

(with inputs from ANI)

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