EV Sales Up 52.7%... EV9 and Ioniq 6 Popular
RV and Genesis Also Sailing Smoothly... Up 8.2% and 9.4% YoY
Hyundai Motor Company and Kia recorded their highest-ever sales in the U.S. for the month of February. The strong performance of recreational vehicles (RVs), electric vehicles (EVs), and the Genesis brand played a key role.
Hyundai and Kia announced on the 4th that they sold a combined total of 124,005 units in the U.S. last month, marking a 1.6% increase compared to the same month last year. This is also the highest February sales figure ever recorded in the U.S. Although monthly sales declined in January for the first time in 18 months, they immediately rebounded in February.
Specifically, Hyundai’s sales volume, including Genesis, rose 6.0% year-over-year to 64,946 units. This set a new record for February sales just one year after the previous record. Kia sold 59,059 units, down 3.0% from the previous year, marking the third-highest February sales exceeding 50,000 units. Among single brands, Genesis showed the highest sales growth, with 4,605 units sold, up 9.4% year-over-year.
RV models were the “breadwinners.” RV sales reached 94,992 units, an 8.2% increase compared to the same month last year. The share of RVs in total sales rose to 76.6%. For Hyundai, the models with the highest growth rates were the Palisade at 7,832 units (+16.2%), Santa Fe at 9,239 units (+15.6%), Kona at 7,024 units (+15.5%), and Tucson at 15,999 units (+14.0%).
Kia’s main RV models mostly showed around 20% growth. These included the Seltos with 4,766 units (+27.3%), Carnival with 3,074 units (+25.0%), Sportage with 12,081 units (+19.4%), and Sorento with 7,425 units (+5.9%).
In the eco-friendly vehicle segment, sales expanded mainly centered on EVs. Hyundai and Kia’s total eco-friendly vehicle sales reached 20,101 units, an 11.3% increase year-over-year. The share of eco-friendly vehicles in total sales rose by 1.4 percentage points to 16.2% during the same period.
EV sales for Hyundai and Kia totaled 7,772 units, a 52.7% increase compared to the same month last year. This growth was driven by the expanded electric vehicle lineup, including the Ioniq 6 (902 units), GV70 electrified model (146 units), and EV9 (1,318 units), which were not sold at the beginning of last year. The Kona Electric also sold 627 units, up 14.8% year-over-year. Kia’s EV9 has surpassed 1,000 units in monthly sales for three consecutive months since December last year.
Hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) sales decreased by 4.8% to 12,318 units. Fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) sales dropped 60.7% to 11 units during the same period.
The overall ranking by model for Hyundai was Tucson (15,999 units), Santa Fe (9,239 units), and Avante (8,432 units). For Kia, the top sellers were Sportage (12,081 units), K3 (11,229 units), and Telluride (8,510 units).
Meanwhile, among major companies that released their U.S. market results last month, Japanese automakers showed notable growth. Honda’s sales reached 110,110 units, a 32.3% increase year-over-year. Toyota also saw a 16.2% rise to 184,450 units during the same period. Subaru (47,189 units, +3.1%) and Mazda (32,705 units, +6.7%) also experienced growth.
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