Seoul - Hyundai Motor says it ranked third in first-half global vehicle sales on increased high-end model sales despite the lack of automotive chips.
Hyundai Motor, including its Genesis and Kia brands, sold a total of 3.299 million vehicles in global markets in the January to June period, following Toyota's 5.138 million units and Volkswagen Group's 4.006 million units, according to their sales data.
In the first six months, stronger sales of Genesis models as well as the all-electric Hyundai Ioniq 5 and the pure electric Kia EV6 pushed up the Korean carmaker's sales ranking, reports Yonhap news agency.
The group's ranking jumped from fifth with sales of 3.475 million vehicles in the first half of 2021. The Korean carmaker's first-half sales fell 5.1 percent from a year earlier, faring better than its global competitors.
Toyota Group's sales declined 6 percent, Volkswagen Group's dropped 14 percent, Stellantis' shed 16 percent, and General Motors plunged 19 percent.
Hyundai said last week that it would spend $424 million (R6.8bn) to build an artificial intelligence (AI) research centre in the US to bolster its edge in robotics technology, an area it cites as a key future growth driver.
IANS