Seoul, Sep 05, 2024, IANS

Seoul, Sep 5 (IANS) Cumulative sales volume of South Korean automotive giant Hyundai Motor is likely to exceed the 100 million-unit mark this month, industry projections showed on Thursday. According to the company data, Hyundai Motor's cumulative car sales from 1968 to the end of July totalled 99.66 million units. This includes 24.36 million units sold domestically and 75.3 million units sold overseas. For August, the company has released tentative data showing that it sold 332,963 units last month. If the August figure is officially confirmed, cumulative sales as of the end of August stand at roughly 99.99 million units, reports Yonhap news agency. The company is poised to surpass the 100 million-unit mark with an additional 340,000 units. As official sales figures for each month are typically finalised a month later, if Hyundai surpasses 100 million units in September, the official statistics are expected to be announced in October. Achieving 100 million units in cumulative sales would mark a major milestone for the South Korean automaker, accomplished 56 years after the company first began selling the Cortina compact sedan, which was first produced at Hyundai's Ulsan plant in 1968. Eight years later, in 1976, Hyundai exported its first domestically developed model, the Pony, overseas. Hyundai's sales grew from 1 million units in 1986 to 10 million units in 1996 and surpassed the 50 million-unit mark in 2013. When combining sales of Kia, Hyundai Motor Group as a whole achieved the 100 million-unit mark in 2016 and later reached 150 million units cumulatively in May of last year. Meanwhile, Kia set a new record in terms of monthly electric vehicle (EV) sales per brand in August, thanks to the successful market debut of the company's new EV3 model, data showed on Thursday. According to auto industry tracker ‘CarIsYou’, the number of newly registered EVs produced by Kia last month totalled 6,398 units. The figure represents a 250 percent surge from last year and a 58.7 percent jump from the previous month. The tally marks the highest monthly record across all domestic and imported brands in the country since the introduction of mass-produced EV models in South Korea in 2011.