South Korea's leading automakers Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. saw
steady sales growth in Europe last month despite the region's contracted demand
in the midst of the financial crisis, industry data showed Thursday.
Hyundai and Kia, the flagship companies of Hyundai Motor Group, sold a combined
73,000 units in September in 27 European countries, up 3.7 percent from a year
ago, according to the data.
Their market share rose 0.9 percentage
points to 6.6 percent last month.
For the first nine months of the
year, sales of the two South Korean carmakers jumped 13.8 percent on-year to
568,000 vehicles, closely tailing the No. 7 BMW AG by 11,000 units, said the
data.
Hyundai and Kia rose to the 8th place last year with 692,500
units sold, outselling Daimler AG and Toyota Motor Corp.
The brisk
sales were led by their popular models like Hyundai's i40 and new i30, and Kia's
new Pride and new Cee'd.
Sales at the European car market tumbled 10.8
percent on-year in September, with 1.1 million units sold. Its January-September
sales also shrank 7.6 percent on-year to 9.37 million vehicles, led by
Volkswagen AG, according to the data.