By Park Jin-hai
Hyundai Motor has lagged behind its Japanese and Chinese rivals in the race to take a bigger bite of the electric vehicle market in the first half of the year.
The largest local carmaker represented 0.2 percent of the total market, according to automotive industry research website Marklines on Sunday.
“Hyundai-Kia Motors’ advance in the hybrid and electric car sector has been slower than its overseas rivals. It has made no marked improvement in fuel efficiency,” said Shin Dong-seok, an analyst at Samsung Securities.
Hyundai-Kia Motors’ EV Ray sold a meager 139 globally in the first half. The carmaker’s electric vehicle sales contracted to 277 in 2013 from 531 in 2012.
“The lack of EV lineups could explain the less-than-expected performance in the electric vehicle market,” said Shin Chung-kwan, an analyst at KB Investment and Securities.
“The automaker has been rather concentrating on the development of other environmentally friendly vehicles such as hybrid and hydrogen vehicles instead,” he added.
As the latecomer in the industry Chinese carmaker Chery Automobile, with its electric vehicle QQ3, sold 3,287 EVs around the world in the first half.
Global sales of electric vehicles (EV) stood at 60,888 in the six months to June, up 40.4 percent from last year.
The sales for plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, which takes the middle ground between EVs and hybrid vehicles, also jumped 58.7 percent during the same period to 28,486.
Nissan’s Leaf became the top seller, with 24,344 units sold taking up a 40 percent of market share.
Tesla Motors’ Model S, BMW’s i3 and Renault’s Zoe followed the Japanese carmaker’s lead, with sales reaching 10,607, 4,339 and 3,536, respectively.
Chung predicted that Hyundai’s sales in the EV category will improve to some extent in the latter half, since the carmaker will be selling compact Soul EV.
“Currently the combined market size for electric vehicle is insignificant, when hybrid cars lead the environmentally friendly car sector,” said a Hyundai Motor official. “We are at a stage of closely monitoring the global trend in the eco-friendly car market, not favoring any specific model. Whether the car is hybrid, hydrogen and electric vehicles, we feel investing only in one specific eco-friendly car type is risky.”
He added that its market share in the overall eco-friendly automobile industry remains at around 5 to 6 percent, similarly to its market share for the traditional car industry.
He said there are limitations in boosting the sales for eco-friendly cars. “Japanese carmakers account for the majority of all global hybrid car sales, since its sales are backed by government support. In Japan, the government supported the eco-friendly car market to the point where buying the hybrid model is cheaper than gasoline powered ones.”