Hyundai Motor sells 1 mn 'green' cars, shows data

Seoul, Aug 8

Hyundai Motor Group's cumulative sales of eco-friendly vehicles surpassed the 1 million mark in July, 13 years after its entry into the green-car market, data showed on Monday.

The automaking giant said its two carmaking affiliates -- Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp. -- sold a combined 29,484 environmentally-friendly vehicles in July alone, raising their cumulative sales to 1.024 million.

The milestone came after Hyundai Motor Group entered the eco-friendly vehicle market in July 2009 by launching the hybrid model of its Avante subcompact, reports Yonhap news agency.

Hyundai Motor, South Korea's leading automaker, registered cumulative sales of 556,854 units, with Kia taking up the remainder.

Hyundai Motor's Grandeur Hybrid, which debuted in 2013, was the best-selling green car with cumulative sales reaching about 184,000 units.

Kia's Niro hybrid model came next with some 126,500, followed by the Sonata hybrid with about 98,300.

Hyundai Motor Group said its sales of eco-friendly vehicles will likely grow further down the road amid the growing popularity of electric vehicles.

Overall, Hyundai Motor's second-quarter net profit jumped 56 per cent from a year earlier on improved product mix and a weak won.

Net profit for the three months ended in June rose to 3.08 trillion won ($2.34 billion) from 1.98 trillion won during the same period of last year.

In the six-month period, Hyundai sold a total of 1.88 million vehicles, achieving 43 per cent of its sales target of 4.34 million units for the year.