U.S. sales by Hyundai, Kia fall 4.5% in August

Hyundai Motor and affiliate Kia said Thursday their U.S. sales fell 4.5 percent in August from a year earlier due to a lack of semiconductor parts.

Hyundai and Kia sold a combined 110,209 vehicles last month, down from 115,376 units a year earlier, according to the companies' sales data.

"After five months in a row of record-breaking sales, along with chip supply shortages, our (lower) inventory levels presented a challenge in August," Randy Parker, senior vice president in charge of national sales at Hyundai Motor America, said in a statement.

But consumer demand for Hyundai vehicles remains at an all-time high and the company expects its inventory pipeline to improve throughout the remainder of the year, he said.

Hyundai's sales fell 4 percent to 56,200 units in August from 58,361 a year ago, while Kia's declined 5.3 percent to 54,009 from 57,015 during the same period.

From January to August, however, their combined sales jumped 36 percent to 1.03 million autos from 761,466 in the year-ago period on strong demand for their models in the world's most important automobile market.

Globally, the two carmakers sold 4.54 million vehicles in the first eight months, up 18 percent from 3.84 million units during the same period of last year.

They aim to sell a combined 7.08 million vehicles this year, 1.7 percent lower than the 7.2 million units they sold last year.

Hyundai and Kia together form the world's fifth-biggest carmaker by sales.

U.S. sales figures for Hyundai's independent Genesis brand were not immediately available.

Yonhap