SEOUL, July 7 (AJP) - Hyundai Motor Group ranked seventh globally in electric vehicle sales for the first five months of this year, according to data released by market researcher SNE Research on Tuesday.
Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia sold a combined 303,000 electric vehicles including plug-in hybrids from January through May, up 24.3 percent from a year earlier to retain seventh place, narrowing the gap with sixth-ranked Chinese automaker Changan to 27,000 vehicles from 78,000 a year earlier.
The combined market share of the two automakers also rose to 3.9 percent from 3.3 percent.
"Hyundai saw the fastest growth among the world's top seven automaker groups, driven by a recovery in Europe and expansion in Asian markets beyond China," SNE Research said.
China's BYD led global EV sales with 1.16 million deliveries, despite a 21.5 percent decline from a year earlier. Its market share also fell to 14.9 percent from 19.7 percent.
Another Chinese automaker Geely ranked second with 779,000 deliveries, followed by U.S.-based Tesla with 601,000 and Germany's Volkswagen with 542,000. China's largest state-owned automaker SAIC (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation) Motor ranked fifth with 458,000 deliveries.
With Chinese automakers almost dominating the top five, the world's most populous country remained the largest EV market with 4.16 million deliveries, although their combined market share fell to 53.7 percent from 62 percent a year earlier.
EV deliveries in Europe rose 27.5 percent to 1.99 million, while those in Asia excluding China jumped 75 percent to 747,000. North America saw deliveries fall 27.6 percent to 517,000.
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