The share of Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia Motors in the global car market reached 8.8 percent in the third quarter, thus earning the two carmakers a spot in the world’s top 5 automakers.
Hyundai and Kia saw their global Q3 sales slide 0.7 percent y-o-y to 1,877,000 units. Hyundai sold 1,189,000 units and Kia 688,000 units, making up 5.6 percent and 3.2 percent of the global market, respectively.
Their combined share of the global market, which stood at 9.1 percent in the second quarter of last year, dropped to 8.2 percent in the first quarter of this year, weighed down by a weak yen, China’s economic slowdown and fluctuations in emerging-market currencies.
Though Hyundai’s Q3 operating profit dipped to a 5-year low, the pace of its downward trend appreciably slowed down compared to a year earlier, therefore fueling expectations of an improvement in Hyundai’s Q4 earnings.
As Kia’s Q3 operating profit surged nearly 20 percent y-o-y, many believe that the automaker has entered a phase of earnings recovery.
In the third quarter of this year, Volkswagen Group came out on top in global market share, followed by Toyota, GM, Renault–Nissan Alliancs and Hyundia-Kia.
