Korean electric cars are popular in the US

Behind Tesla, the Hyundai-Kia electric car surpasses all other brands, including General Motors and Volkswagen.

 

Long-standing automakers continue to increase production and sales of pure electric vehicles, but efforts are still not enough. In the first half of the year, the market leader was still Tesla, with a huge gap compared to the rest.

Electric car Hyundai Ioniq 5 sold in the US.  Photo: Hyundai

In second place are Hyundai and Kia, however, the total sales of both brands are still 300,000 vehicles behind Tesla. The positive side for the two Korean automakers is that they stand above all other competitors, including from the US and other countries that come to do business in the US.

 

Trademark Sales for the first half of 2023 Sales in the first half of 2022 Increase (%)

Tesla 336.892 259.790 30

Hyundai-Kia 38.457 34.518 11

General Motors 36.322 7.820 365

Volkswagen 26.538 12.424 114

Ford 25.709 22.979 12

The difference between Hyundai and Kia and General Motors (GM) is not much, only about 2,000 vehicles. Compared to themselves, sales of the two Korean brands increased not much, about 4,000 vehicles, while Tesla increased 77,000 vehicles.

 

With GM, after the first quarter in second place, it dropped to third when it had half-year results. However, GM's increase was the largest in the top 5, with 365 percent over the same period in 2022. Specifically, if the company sold only 7,820 electric vehicles in the first half of last year, this year, sales are more than 36,300 vehicles.

In fourth place, Volkswagen also had impressive results with an increase of 114%, and achieved sales of 26,538 vehicles. Ford modestly ranked at the bottom of the top 5, with an increase of only 12%, with sales of 25,709 vehicles.

 

As for Tesla, sales increased, but market share decreased by nearly 10% compared to the same period in 2022, with this year's market share in the domestic market at 60%. This situation is due to more and more competitors entering the electric vehicle segment, leading to the growth of the whole market, the market share is therefore also divided. Sales of the entire US electric vehicle market increased by 50% compared to the first half of 2022.