The Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group had overtook Japanese automakers in the South American market. It has already beaten Japanese in China, India and Europe. The only market left is North America, where the market share of this Korean automaker is just 0.1 percentage point behind Japanese auto makers.
Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp., South Korea’s biggest car makers, are running full shifts at their U.S. plants and also overtime. Even the shortages of parts are not curbing this company, whereas the Japan-based competitors are struggling to give output.
At this rate, chances are growing stronger for Hyundai-KIA automotive group to emerge as the top automaker in Asian group.
According to data announced by Ward’s Auto regarding sales in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay and Venezuela, Hyundai-Kia sold 75,792 cars from January to May this year, taking the No. 1 spot among Asian car makers and beating Toyota (67,614), Honda (54,934) and Nissan (45,180).
Hyundai-Kia saw sales rise 24.5 percent from May last year (13,641), while Toyota’s and Honda’s sales dropped 3.8 percent and 6.3 percent over the same period due to Japanese earthquake.
The 50,000 units represent approximately 14% of April’s domestic sales of 367,961 units at Hyundai and Kia. These two companies together are the world’s fifth-largest auto maker.