Hyundai, Kia on track to achieve 2018 sales target

SEOUL. KAZINFORM Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp. are on track to achieve their sales target of 7.55 million vehicles this year as they are expected to post nearly 10 percent on-year sales growth in the second quarter, company officials said Monday.

As their sales have been on a recovery path in China since March, the two carmakers are likely to sell a total of 1.94 million vehicles in the April-June period, jumping 9.6 percent from 1.77 million units a year earlier, a Hyundai Motor official told Yonhap News Agency.

In the January-April period, their sales in China rose 7.2 percent to 347,927 autos from a year ago. In the 14 consecutive months through February, the two firms posted negative sales growth in the neighboring market before sales began to rebound in March, Yonhap reports.

Last year, their sales in China were hit hard due to a diplomatic row between Seoul and Beijing over the deployment of an advanced anti-missile system called THAAD in South Korea.

Hyundai and Kia, which together form the world's fifth-biggest carmaker, aim to achieve a combined sales target of 7.55 million vehicles for 2018, slightly higher than the 7.25 million units they sold last year.