Hyundai Motor Co. and its smaller affiliate, Kia Motors Corp., saw their combined U.S. sales rise by more than 6 percent in July, thanks in large part to strong sales in sport utility vehicles. The two South Korean auto giants sold 134,972 units in the U.S. market last month, up from 127,324 units in the same month last year, exceeding the country’s automobile industry average growth rate of 5.3 percent.
Hyundai reported that its sales rose 5.6 percent from last year to 75,003 while Kia reported a total of 59,969 units, up 6.4 percent compared with a year ago. Both automakers said the figures represented their best-ever July sales. Derrick Hatami, vice president of national sales for Hyundai Motor America, said that the strong performance of the Tucson and refreshed Santa Fe Sport and Santa Fe helped them to reach the best July sales number. The data shows that the Santa Fe model saw its sales jump to 14,336 units from last year's 11,655, while Tucson's sales nearly doubled to 7,728 from last year's 3,908. Kia's Sportage SUV also saw its sales rise 53 percent to 8,111 from last year's 5,292, but sales of the Sorento remained almost flat at 9,854, compared with last year's 9,749 units.
Japan’s Honda and Nissan also enjoyed a growth of 7.7 percent and 7.8 percent, respectively, to 146,324 units and 130,872 units.The overall U.S. auto market grew 5.3 percent last month to 1,510,941 units, with the cumulative car sales for the January-July period of this year estimated at 10,033,999 units, up 4.5 percent year on year.
