Hyundai-Kia plans to sell 350 000 hybrid vehicles between 2011 and 2015
- The Hyundai-Kia group has been marketing hybrid cars in the United States and Korea since 2011. That same year Hyundai launched the Sonata Hybrid (segment D) and launched the following year the Kia Optima Hybrid (segment D). The two cars share the same platform and the same engines. The Hyundai-Kia group accounts for 2% of the world hybrid market.
- In two years, Hyundai-Kia has sold 80 000 hybrid cars in the United States and 70 000 in Korea, a total of 150 000 units.
- In Korea, the groups' hybrid models represent 3% of the Korean market (compared to 7% in the United States and 14% in Japan). These hybrid models meet a demand that diesel engines fail to fulfil, because diesel engines are traditionally non existent in the Korean market. In their country of origin, the Sonata and Optima Hybrid models represent nearly 20% of Sonata and Optima sales.
- In the first ten months of 2013, sales of the Sonata hybrid fell by 6%, and the sales of the Optima Hybrid fell by 20%, while the Korean market increased by 11.8% over this period, sales of D segment cars on the market stagnated (the Sonata and Optima all motors combined represent 75% of D segment sales in South Korea).
- The group maintains its goal of selling 350 000 hybrid cars worldwide between 2011 and 2015.
