Annual sales of Hyundai Motor Group, the South Korean maker of Hyundai and Kia cars, are expected to reach a new high in the so-called BRICs market, the automotive group said Sunday.

In the first nine months of the year, sales of Hyundai Motor Co. in Brazil, Russia, India and China came to 1,419,843, up 6.7 percent from the same period last year, with sales of Kia Motors Corp. soaring 8 percent on-year to 614,743 units, according to the group.

The combined sales of the companies that together make up the world‘s fifth-largest automotive group, rose 7.1 percent on-year to 2,034,586 over the cited period. Also, their sales in the world’s four fastest growing markets accounted for nearly 36 percent of their global sales.

The group noted its annual sales in the countries will likely reach a new record of 2.7 million units if they continue to grow at the current pace.

The combined annual sales of Hyundai and Kia breached the 2 million mark for the first time in 2011, three years after they breached the 1 million mark in 2008. (Yonhap)