(Yonhap)
Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp. said Thursday their sales in the United States fell 19 percent in June from a year earlier as the new coronavirus continued to affect vehicle sales.
Hyundai, Hyundai's independent Genesis brand and Kia sold a combined 99,434 vehicles in the US market last month, down from 122,890 units a year ago, according to the companies' sales data.
The carmakers had planned to focus on boosting sales in the world's most important automobile market this year to offset sluggish demand in China, the world's biggest automobile market.
They originally planned to launch Hyundai's Tucson SUV, Hyundai's independent Genesis brand's GV80 SUV and G80 sedan, and Kia's Sportage SUV in the US later this year, but they are still awaiting shipment to the US due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
From January to June, the brands' combined sales in the US declined 16 percent to 543,474 units from 648,179 in the year-ago period, the data showed.
Hyundai and Kia are widely expected to miss their combined sales target of 7.54 million cars for this year. They sold 7.2 million units in 2019. (Yonhap)