Hyundai Motor Group, which includes three car brands – Hyundai, Kia and Genesis – recently reached a milestone of one million plug-in electric cars sold cumulatively (globally).
According to Yonhap News Agency, the group reached 1.02 million at the end of December 2022, which is more than a decade since the first model, the Hyundai BlueOn. was introduced in July 2011 in South Korea. At the time, it was a very basic all-electric car with a 16.4 kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery and a range of less than 100 miles.
But the South Korean company quickly progressed, developing new products (the most significant were the Hyundai Kona Electric and Kia Niro EV with a 64 kWh battery) and most recently, the all-new E-GMP platform for the next-generation of electric cars.
According to the article, the cumulative sales of EVs (BEVs and PHEVs as we understand) as of the end of 2022, amounted to:
- Hyundai Motor (Hyundai and Genesis): 601,448
- Kia: 420,836
- Hyundai Motor Group: 1,022,284
That’s including 371,838 units in 2022, which is a massive growth compared to 101,362 in 2019.
Our very own data, based on the company wholesale shipments, is very similar (which makes us very happy) and indicates that in 2022, the group sold over 370,000 plug-ins:
We estimate that more than 800,000 (between 800,000 and 850,000) out of the 1 million plug-ins sold by the group since 2011 are all-electric cars. The remaining part is plug-in hybrids.
For reference, the hydrogen fuel cell car sales (almost entirely the Hyundai Nexo) stand at over 32,000 cumulatively.
In terms of the most popular models, the article listed the top three:
- Hyundai Kona Electric: 256,907
- Kia Niro EV (e-Niro): 200,302
- Hyundai Ioniq 5: 165,637
We can’t verify the numbers, besides that the Hyundai Ioniq 5 figures are almost exactly the same as the cumulative wholesale shipment volume. The Hyundai Kona Electric might be even higher – close to 290,000. The retired Hyundai Ioniq Electric almost reached 90,000.
Regardless of the details, the Hyundai Motor Group is on a fast track to expand its all-electric car lineup and sales volume so we probably don’t have to wait long for another million plug-ins – 24 months (or by the end of 2024) should be enough.
