South Korea's largest carmaker Hyundai Motor Co. and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors Corp. were unable to draw in a larger share of the global auto market in the past three years, data showed Sunday, held back by persistent exchange rate disadvantages that have given an edge to overseas rivals.

The car-making duo's combined market share stood at 8.8 percent out of a total 87.17 million vehicles sold worldwide last year, according to the data compiled by U.S.-based research firm LMC Automotive.

Although Hyundai and Kia had pushed up their portion by 0.6 percentage point on-year to 8.6 percent in 2011 and managed to nudge it up to 8.8 percent a year later, the figure has been at a virtual standstill since, according to the data.

The two carmakers are struggling against the weaker Japanese yen, which has made their exports relatively more expensive as opposed to rivals such as Toyota, industry watchers said. As of Friday, the won's value against the yen had appreciated over 38 percent compared to the beginning of 2012.

On top of that, demand from key markets has also been sluggish due largely to the geopolitical conflicts in Ukraine and Russia, according to industry watchers.

The two affiliates under the world's No. 5 automotive conglomerate, Hyundai Motor Group, however, said the fact they didn't lose any of their existing market share was meaningful in itself, considering current circumstances.

"That we were able to maintain our global market share at the same level as a year earlier signifies a considerable improvement on our part, since we didn't build additional production plants last year other than Kia's third factory in China," a company official said. (Yonhap)