Hyundai Motor Group, the world's fifth-largest automotive conglomerate, said Wednesday that its sales in China and India rose 8.2 percent on-year in June, fueled by solid demand for its popular models.

The conglomerate said combined sales by its flagship companies Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. in the two countries stood at 171,188 units last month, up from 158,225 a year earlier.

China represents the largest market for Hyundai and Kia vehicles, even surpassing the United States market. India, where only Hyundai cars are sold, is also a significant market.

For the first half of this year, combined sales of the two companies stood at 1,071,065, up just under 8.8 percent from 984,585 units tallied for the previous year.

In the larger Chinese market, Hyundai and Kia, who sell cars through local affiliates Beijing Hyundai Motor Co. and Dongfeng Yueda Kia Automobile Co., said sales rose 5.1 percent and 13 percent, respectively.

Both Hyundai and Kia have production facilities in China that can churn out up to 1.79 million cars per year along with 160,000 commercial vehicles, such as trucks and buses.

Hyundai sold 86,668 cars, with Kia managing to post sales hitting 51,006 units.

The carmakers said strong sales of steady selling models, mainly compact, midsize and SUVs, and generally good consumer demand contributed to the rise in overall numbers.

Hyundai said sales of its Langdong and Verna models all surpassed the 20,000-unit mark last month, with models like ix35 CUV, Mistra midsize sedan exceeding 10,000 units.

Of all cars sold, the Langdong, a compact sedan based on the Avante, ranked No. 1 in terms of sales with 20,142 units.

Kia said sales of its K3 compacts and K2 subcompact did well, with numbers hitting 14,916 and 11,907 units, each, in the one-month period. Sales of its Forte and K5 reached a solid 5,865 and 4,394 vehicles.

In the Indian market, Hyundai sold 33,514 cars, up 9.5 percent from 30,610 units sold in June 2013.

Of the 10 models sold on the subcontinent, the Grand i10 supermini ranked No. 1 with sales hitting 7,901 units. This was followed by 7,069 Accent subcompacts being sold in the country. Combined sales of the Grand i10 and regular i10 hit 10,487.

Sales of the EON city car placed third at 6,579 units.

India is the world's third-largest new car market and an important production and export base for the South Korean carmaker, which has a plant in Chennai with an annual production capacity of 600,000 cars.

The overall rise is good news for the automaker, which aims to sell a combined 7.86 million cars in 2014, up about 4 percent from 7.56 million units sold worldwide last year. In the first half, Hyundai and Kia sales hit 4,043,415 units, a gain of 5.4 percent from 3,836,445 units sold a year earlier.

Source:- globalpost.com