2024 Hyundai electric car sales
In an interview yesterday with Hyundai’s COO, he was asked this question, Is Hyundai feeling the effects of a slowdown in EV sales? Now, he responded by saying this, For us, it’s a driver of growth.
It’s true last year, it was a faster driver of growth, but it’s representing more and more business for us.
Definitely, the infrastructure is behind the technology. When the consumers are confident about infrastructure, it will be better.
Hyundai’s COO on EV Sales Growth
Now, Unfortunately, what Hyundai COO Carlos Munoz claimed about Hyundai’s EV sales isn’t true.
In fact, Hyundai is in dire straits when it comes to their EV production and actual sales to customers.
This year, things have gone from bad to worse. I’m not saying the company doesn’t build great EVs, their EVs are phenomenal.
The big problem here is Hyundai is losing so much money on every electric car it sells, that it doesn’t actually want to produce as many EVs as what they’re letting you believe.
In spite of Hyundai having some really good electric cars, they’re not actually making that many.
Declining EV Sales: A Six-Month Trend
Hyundai’s EV sales have fallen for six straight months worldwide, every single month for six months in a row.
In fact, this year, Hyundai’s EV sales have fallen by 31% in the first four months of the year compared to the first four months of 2023.
This is becoming an increasing problem for the company as the percentage of cars it sells, the EVs, continues to fall.
China Market Struggles
If we think about this, logically, Hyundai sells in China while they’re barely selling any cars in China.
Hyundai doesn’t sell many EVs yet in the US because it doesn’t manufacture them there.
US Presence and Impact on Sales
So it can’t take advantage of the $7,500 tax credit. It has to sell EVs at a loss in the US. We know Hyundai are making a loss on its EV sales in the US.
It’s having to discount them pretty seriously in order to contend with other companies who do qualify for those EV incentives.
For this reason, Hyundai doesn’t want to sell too many EVs in the US in spite of its rhetoric, because it loses so much money on every one of its cells.
Hyundai building EV in America
Now, this situation will probably change, well, definitely change, once Hyundai are building EVs in America, along with Kia.
But until that happens, it’s likely that Hyundai’s EV sales will continue to fall. So far this year, Hyundai’s EV sales have gone down in its percentage terms as well.
The number of vehicles as a percentage that Hyundai is selling that are fully electric has gone from about 8.2% last year to around 6% now.
Hyundai EV sales Graph
During the first four months of the year, Hyundai EV sales have continued to fall.
The volume now that are fully electric is around 6.2 % of the entire company’s sales. It was 8.4 % a year ago.
The wholesale volume of all electric cars has fallen by 27 % year over year in the month of April.
So April was a little better than the first three months of the year.
But in total, including Genesis, Genesis and Hyundai put together, EV sales have fallen by a total of 31 %.
So far this year, Hyundai has sold 62,452 fully electric cars worldwide for the first four months of the year.
Performance with Rivals
Genesis EVs, 3,681 that means in total, they’ve only sold 66,000 electric cars worldwide over the space of four months, or around 16,000 electric cars per month.
And that means that Hyundai is no longer one of the world’s five largest EVs.
So far this year, Hyundai has sold 66,000 vehicles, including Genesis EVs worldwide, so around about 16,000 per month.
That means Hyundai is not even close to being one of the world’s 15, one of the world’s five largest electric vehicle manufacturers.
It’s a long way away and you’ve got companies like Geely, BYD, Tesla, who are just absolutely killing it, to be honest, even though Tesla’s vehicle sales went down in the first quarter this year.
Overall, their growth over the past 12 months has been actually very impressive. On the other hand, the same hasn’t happened for Hyundai.
Future Investments and Prospects
Now, Hyundai is saying it will they’re saying, No, we’re investing more than $60 billion, well, combined with Kia, they’re investing that amount into building a lot more electric cars.
So they do plan on selling a lot more. But the question is, where will they sell them? Hyundai doesn’t really successfully sell cars in China.
They’ve just actually dumped a factory that cost them $1.2 billion to build. They’ve dumped that for a couple of hundred million.
They lost nearly a billion dollars on that project. That was a new factory.
But yeah, the key reason they sold that is because really their cars are not selling in China.
For whatever reason, people in China don’t want to buy South Korean cars. Kia haven’t really sold successfully in China either.
That leads us to the US. Now, obviously, the US market, Hyundai is struggling as well for the reasons already outlined.
So really the key market Hyundai have to focus on is in South Korea, but also Europe and other places, such as South Korea, such as South East Asia, Australia, other places that are not China.
Building a new factory in the US will help it to rebound. But right now, Hyundai here to do some really big rebounding in order to catch up with some of their rivals.
Now, looking at models, the reality here is, sedan sales are falling that’s the problem for Lucid.
IONIQ 5 Sales Trends
Having a look at by model, what is actually happening here. Hyundai IONIQ 5 sales, they have gone down, even though the car has been improved significantly now.
It’s got a bigger battery pack, it’s got more range, it’s got some significant improvements to it.
I think it’s a fantastic vehicle that people should consider buying, especially if you can get one at a good price similar to a Model Y.
Absolutely have a look at the IONIQ 5. Hyundai IONIQ 5 sales, 8,100. That means those sales have actually fallen by a total of 25% in April, Worldwide, 32,660, down 14% so IONIQ 5 sales haven’t dropped that much, only 14%.
Kona EV Sales Drop
Kona sales have gone down significantly by 28%, even if that’s actually the cheapest vehicle you can buy in the US now, cheapest EV.
Hyundai IONIQ 6, though, this is where… Well, this vehicle has been a big problem for Hyundai.
IONIQ 6 Underperformance
The IONIQ 6 sales are down 70% to only 6,944 vehicles. It appears as though the new Tesla Model 3 sedan has been a bit of an issue for the Hyundai IONIQ 6.
One of the key reasons is the Model 3 is… Obviously, it’s a bit cheaper than the IONIQ 6, and it’s obviously been very, very well covered by the media.
A lot of people are aware of it.
Hydrogen Vehicle Sales
Now, when it comes to hydrogen-powered vehicles, Hyundai, their sales are down as well.
They sold 255 units last month. Overall, though, they’ve only sold 862 worldwide, and sales for their Hyundai Nexo have fallen by 64% worldwide.
The Path Forward for Hyundai
Whatever Hyundai do, I really hope they bounce back because I think that makes them great EVs.
But I think what they’re actually doing is different to what they’re saying. They’re saying things all the time Evs are the future, we’re focusing on EVs.
We believe EV sales are growing. The truth is, EV sales are not going well for Hyundai at this point in time.
I believe the biggest reason for that is simply they don’t make EVs in America yet. They don’t have any presence in China.
That’s the two biggest car markets in the world. Hyundai need the US to bounce back.
They need more models and more affordable models in the US. Until that happens, this fall in EV sales is likely to continue for the company.