Hyundai doubles US EV sales

South Korean OEM Hyundai doubled its US BEV sales in March on a year-on-year basis, and recorded 61pc growth in Q1 compared to the same period last year.

Hyundai does not publish figures for its BEV sales alone, but the OEM says that "Hyundai [B]EV sales increased [by] 100pc and all eco-friendly vehicle sales combined hit 11,485 units, a 35pc increase."

Hyundai's "eco-friendly" vehicles include its hybrid vehicles, as well as its Nexo FCEV.

Compared to a 100pc rise in BEV sales, however, the OEM only reported an overall sales growth of 2pc year-on-year, indicating that the firm's electric offerings are seeing considerably stronger growth than its ICE portfolio.

The growth was driven largely by the Ioniq 5 BEV SUV selling 3,361 units, 58pc up from March last year, as well as the Ioniq 6 all-electric sedan growing to just under 2,000 units. Hyundai does not split out sales of its electric Kona SUV from its ICE version.

Hyundai sold 184,804 units in Q1, for a total sales increase of 0.2pc compared with Q1'23, setting a new Q1 record. Hyundai set total and retail sales marks in Q1 for Ioniq 5, Tucson PHEV, Tucson HEV, Kona EV and Palisade," Hyundai says . "EV sales for the quarter jumped [by] 62pc compared to Q1 last year."

Hyundai's BEV growth is a sign of its affordable electric offerings paying off. The Kona's electrified models start under $33,000 before incentives, making it amongst the most affordable in the small e-SUV segment.

Hyundai Group subsidiary Kia also posted 151pc growth in its BEV sales in the US in Q1. As with Hyundai, however, Kia groups some of its EV models' sales numbers together with older ICE versions and does not give a precise number of BEV sales, but EV inFocus estimates it at c.11,000 units.

“Our growth in SUVs and early impact of the all-new, all-electric three-row EV9 helped deliver Kia’s second-best first quarter sales result,” says Eric Watson, vice-president, sales operations, Kia America.