Kia beats Hyundai again in 2021 race to be Korea's number one

Kia is threatening to overtake its senior sibling company Hyundai as Australia’s favourite Korean brand for the first time.

The two companies, which are jointly owned but run independently, are split by just 740 sales at the halfway point of 2021 after June became the second consecutive month Kia outsold Hyundai.

Hyundai has sold 38,634 vehicles year-to-date compared with 37,894 units for Kia.

Hyundai has historically had the upper hand over Kia ever since the brand of which it is currently the majority shareholder joined it in Australia in 1996. Hyundai arrived locally a decade earlier.

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2022 Kia Cerato

Between 2009 and 2015, Hyundai comprehensively outsold Kia every year – by more than triple the volume in many cases.

The sales gap was widest in 2014, when Hyundai surpassed 100,000 sales for the first time in Australia and Kia had shifted just over 28,000 units.

Kia has closed the gap gradually since, with the brand’s sales increasing annually since it introduced an industry-leading seven-year factory warranty in 2014.

While the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic curtailed that run last year, a bigger hit for Hyundai sales meant the margin shrank to just 8000 in 2020. In March 2020, Kia outsold Hyundai for the first time in an individual month.

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2021 Hyundai Palisade Highlander

The companies share significant resources including vehicle platforms and drivetrains, meaning both have been susceptible to the ongoing semi-conductor shortages which have delayed delivery of some models, particularly higher trim grades.

While Hyundai's sales are up 26 per cent to the end of June, Kia sales have increased by 43 per cent – well above the overall market’s year-to-date growth of 28 per cent.

Kia is already outselling Hyundai when counting passenger cars and SUVs only, as the company doesn’t offer a commercial van equivalent of the Hyundai iLoad (2206 units year to date).

Hyundai, however, has also abandoned the city-car class where the Kia Picanto and Kia Rio account for nearly 6500 sales.

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2022 Kia Carnival

It is just about leading in the micro-battles between twinned models which share platforms and components under the skin but feature significantly different design inside and out.

The Hyundai i30 small car’s 13,139 year-to-date sales are ahead of the Kia Cerato’s 10,756 units, with both models having been updated this year.

The Hyundai Kona compact SUV and Tucson mid-sized SUV have comfortable advantages over their Kia’s equivalent vehicles – the Seltos and Sportage, respectively.

Hyundai has only recently released a new-generation Tucson; Kia’s Sportage replacement is due later this year.

Kia’s seven-seater Sorento SUV is newer than Hyundai’s rival, the Santa Fe, and the former has overtaken the latter thanks to 115 per cent year-to-date growth. Santa Fe sales are up only 21 per cent, despite a recent facelift.

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2022 Hyundai i30N

And Kia’s city-sized SUV, the Stonic, is a few hundred units ahead of Hyundai’s Venue, which is still enjoying strong growth of 89 per cent so far in 2021.

Hyundai doesn’t sell a version of Kia’s successful Carnival people-mover, though did introduce a new, larger SUV called the Palisade this year. Like the Carnival it can accommodate up to eight people and has made a promising start with 1848 sales so far in 2021, if not a match for the Carnival’s 3365 units.

Based on current growth rates, Kia would fall about a thousand units short of Hyundai’s 12-month total.

Neither company is the biggest-growing Korean brand in Australia so far this year, however. That honour goes to SsangYong, which is up 117 per cent year-to-date – albeit with much lower volume of 1421 units.

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2022 Kia Sportage

2021 So far: Hyundai versus Kia

2006-2020: Hyundai versus Kia