Hyundai’s EV market share in U.S. at 10% for first time

Hyundai Motor’s IONIQ 5. [Courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group]

Hyundai Motor Group made its presence felt in the U.S. electric vehicle market by achieving a double-digit market share, even as concerns about weakened demand for EVs and their fire risks linger, data showed on Tuesday.

U.S. automotive market research firm Motor Intelligence said on Tuesday that Hyundai Motor Co., Kia Corp., and Genesis, a luxury automotive brand under Hyundai Motor Group, achieved a 10 percent market share in the U.S. EV market in the first seven months of 2024.

This is a significant lead over U.S. automakers Ford Motor Co. (7.4 percent) and General Motors Co. (6.3 percent), with Tesla Inc., which dominated the U.S. EV market with a 70 percent and 60 percent share in 2022 and 2023 respectively, seeing its share drop to 50 percent during the cited period.

Hyundai Motor is currently the only manufacturer, to achieve a double-digit market share in the U.S. EV market alongside Tesla. The South Korean auto giant’s success is largely attributed to its volume models based on the E-GMP platform, such as the Hyundai IONIQ 5 and Kia EV6.

According to Cox Automotive Inc., the IONIQ 5 accounted for 3.1 percent of sales by model in the first half of 2024, ranking fourth behind the Tesla Model Y, Model 3, and Ford Mustang Mach-E. The impressive performance of Kia’s EV6 is also noteworthy, with 10,941 units sold in the first half of 2024 to top the 10,000-unit sales mark for the first time. Kia is in its third year since its launch in the U.S. market in 2022, and its sales growth was 31.4 percent year-over-year during the period.

While Hyundai and Kia’s models saw a growth in sales, Tesla, the market leader in the United States, saw a rapid decline. Tesla Model 3 sales, for example, were down 34.8 percent in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period a year ago. Its market share gap with the IONIQ 5 narrowed from 18 percentage points in the second quarter of 2023 to 9 percentage points in 2024.

As global concerns about the fire risks of EVs grow, Hyundai Motor Group plans to strengthen its global EV market strategy by highlighting its self-developed battery safety system. The company announced on Tuesday that it installed an overcharge prevention system in its Hyundai Motor and Kia electric vehicles, while the nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) batteries used in Hyundai vehicles are designed to only allow charging up to about 70 percent of their maximum capacity.

The company also said that the maximum battery capacity available to consumers is set to a safe margin below the total capacity and emphasized its “cell balancing” technology. A single battery contains hundreds of cells, and the malfunction of some cells can lead to a decline in battery performance. The cell balancing technology equipped in Hyundai vehicles calculates the total chargeable capacity based on the cell with the smallest charging capacity, thereby eliminating concerns about overcharging.