HYUNDAI

South Korean auto giant controls 9% of the US electrified segment

So far, the US electric car market is inferior in size to the Chinese and European ones, but plans to conquer it are already being made by local auto giants represented by GM and Ford, which are haunted by Tesla's success. Currently, Tesla is the leader, and South Korea's Hyundai Motor Group, which controls 9% of the segment, remains Elon Musk's biggest rival in the local electric car market.

This is evidenced by the recently published data from the S&P Global Mobility study, which covers the period from January to September of this year inclusive. The subsidiary brand KIA is actually ahead of the parent brand Hyundai, as in the US market it occupies 5% of the results for the specified period against 4% for the latter. This allows KIA brand electric vehicles to take third place, and Hyundai shares fourth place with local General Motors. Formally, Ford Motor is in second place with 7% of the electric car market, but collectively related Korean brands are still knocking it out of this position.

Tesla leads the US by a wide margin with 65% of the market. The world's second-biggest automaker, Germany's Volkswagen, is content with just 2% of the US electric car market, and Audi's subsidiary controls the same amount. Excluding Tesla from the sample, Hyundai and KIA account for 35% of the US EV market, Ford is second at 28%, Chevrolet third at 16% and Volkswagen fourth at 8%. With this distribution, the KIA brand alone holds 19% of the US electric vehicle market and second place, second only to Ford, and Hyundai will be fourth with 16% of the market.

Until now, Korean-brand electric vehicles have been imported exclusively into the US, putting them at a disadvantage in terms of tax credits for local buyers who opt for US-made electric vehicles starting next January. A $5.5 billion Hyundai Group electric vehicle assembly plant will be built in Georgia.

In fact, November was the best month for the Korean company's products in terms of electric vehicle sales in the United States. Over the past five months, sales have grown by double- and triple-digit percentages. Only 19,391 KIA electric vehicles have been sold in this country since the start of the year.

The IONIQ 5 electric car is also very popular in the US, with 21,262 units sold since the start of the year. It should be noted that this model is willingly bought by former owners of Japanese crossover brands. Buyers of the IONIQ 5 in the USA also include former owners of the American Chevrolet Volt and Jeep Wrangler.

Between 2022 and 2034, S&P Global Mobility predicts that Hyundai and KIA will rank sixth behind Tesla in cumulative electric vehicle sales. The corresponding indicator of the Korean industrial group will reach 5.25 million pieces. Tesla will lead with 11.15 million electric vehicles, GM will be second with 10.61 million units, Ford Motor will be third with 8.54 million electric vehicles sold, Stellantis will come out fourth in the US (6.77 million units), and fifth will be Toyota Motor, which so far sells 5.93 million battery electric vehicles.

So far, the Japanese giant, which is considered the world's biggest automaker, has shown little activity in the electric car market, but hopes to catch up quickly if necessary. By the middle of the next decade, in the US market, Korean electric car makers will be ahead of Volkswagen, Honda, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and the Nissan-Mitsubishi-Renault alliance.

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