Hyundai Kia Motors Sets Global Sales Target at 7.08 Million Units This Year... Second Consecutive Year of Downward Revision

by Woo Sooyoun

Published 04 Jan.2021 16:09(KST)

[Asia Economy Reporter Su-yeon Woo] Hyundai Kia Motors has set its global sales target for this year at 7.08 million units, lowering its target for the second consecutive year compared to the previous year. Due to the outlook that the impact of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) will continue through this year, the recovery of overseas markets has become uncertain, leading to a lowered overseas sales target and a slightly increased domestic sales target.

On the 4th, Hyundai Kia Motors announced its global sales target for this year at 7.082 million units, a 6% decrease from the previous year. By company, Hyundai Motor set its global sales target at 4.16 million units this year, about 410,000 units lower than last year, while Kia Motors set a target similar to last year's level at 2.92 million units.

Hyundai Kia Motors had increased its annual global sales target announced at the beginning of each year up to 8.25 million units in 2017, but after the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) incident, it lowered the target to the mid-7.5 million units range starting in 2018. This year's sales target has been lowered to the early 7 million units level, which was the target in 2012, reflecting the outlook of sharply decreased overseas demand due to last year's COVID-19 crisis.

By category, Hyundai Kia Motors lowered its overseas sales target by 7% from the previous year to about 5.8055 million units, but reflecting confidence in the domestic market, it raised the domestic sales target by about 2% to 1.2765 million units. Early this year, Hyundai Kia Motors plans to significantly strengthen its electric vehicle lineup, starting with the Ioniq 5, the first electric vehicle applying the dedicated electric vehicle platform 'E-GMP' in the domestic market.

Meanwhile, last year Hyundai Kia Motors recorded global sales of 6.350851 million units, an 11% decrease from the previous year. This achievement rate was only 84% of the annual target (7.536 million units) announced at the beginning of last year, resulting in Hyundai Kia Motors failing to meet its sales target for six consecutive years.