Hyundai Motor Company has had a strong first-quarter in calendar year 2023. The Korean carmaker has reported global sales of 1,021,712 units in the January-March period, a 13.2% increase from a year earlier (Q1 CY2022: 902,691 units).

Sales in markets outside of Korea rose by 10.7% to 830,665 units, and sales in Korea increased 25.6% to 191,047 units. The strong sales mainly stemmed from the improvement of production as chip and component supplies stabilised worldwide.

Hyundai Motor India, the company’s Indian unit with manufacturing plants in Chennai, which registered wholesales of 147,707 units, up 11.33% YoY (Q1 CY2022: 132,672), contributed 14.45% to Hyundai’s global sales in Q1 2023.

March 2023’s 50,600 units were also Hyundai Motor India’s best monthly numbers in a year. FY2023 saw the company, which retails a total of nine products in India – five SUVs (Creta, Venue, Alcazar, Tucson, Kona), two hatchbacks (i10 Grand, i20 Elite) and two sedans (Verna, Xcent /Aura) record its best-ever fiscal year numbers – 567,546 units, up 18% (FY2022: 481,500 units) – beating the previous best of 545,243 in FY2019.

Hyundai targets high profitability and EV leadership

During the January-March 2023 period, Hyundai Motor recorded operating profit margin of 9.5 percent. Its net profit was up 92.4% to KRW 3.42 trillion, paving the way for the company to meet its annual guidance for 2023. Hyundai Motor also sold nearly 66,000 units of electric vehicle (EV) models in the period, an increase of 48% from a year earlier.

Hyundai Motor aims to secure robust profitability and achieve its annual guidance through increased sales, enhanced product mix with more SUVs and luxury models, and production rate recovery, despite persistent external factors, such as expanding inflation and fluctuation of raw material costs and interest rates due to geopolitical issues.

The company plans to continue to strengthen its global position in EVs by growing sales of its World Car of the Year-winning Ioniq 6 and Ioniq 5 and launching more models, including the Hyundai Kona EV, Genesis’ GV60, Electrified G80, and Electrified GV70 in markets around the world. 

This year, Hyundai Motor will also launch the Ioniq 5 N, its first high-performance EV model, while the Ioniq 6 will be introduced in more diverse global markets.

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