Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp., South Korea’s top two carmakers, saw their sales in the so-called BRICs market soar more than 20 percent on-year in the first half of 2013, data showed Sunday.

Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors sold a combined 1.28 million vehicles in Brazil, Russia, India and China in the January-June period, up 22.9 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to the data by Hyundai Motor Group and Shinhan Investment Corp.

The figure accounts for 34.8 percent of the two companies’ global sales of 3.68 million units over the cited period.

The growth rate of Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors in the BRICs market far outpaced that for their major competitors.

Comparable first-half growth figures were 13.1 percent for German automaker Volkswagen with the top market share in the BRICs market and 7.5 percent for runner-up General Motors Co.

With sales in the United States and Europe not so strong, the BRICs market has been the driver of growth for Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors, the flagships of Hyundai Motor Group, market watchers said.

In the first half, Hyundai Motor’s global sales grew 7.7 percent on-year, with shipments of Kia Motors climbing 2.7 percent. (Yonhap News)