Hyundai could overtake Ford in US sales

In the United States, they started talking about the South Korean sensation in the car market. According to Cox Automotive, the South Korean Hyundai Motor Group is capable of selling more cars in the third quarter of this year than Ford. If the forecast is confirmed, this will happen for the first time in the American car market, writes Bloomberg.

Combined shipments of Hyundai, Genesis and Kia during the reporting period increased by approximately 4.4 percent to nearly 511,000 vehicles. This is quite enough for the group to rise to third place in sales in the United States, behind only General Motors and Toyota.

Against this background, sales of Ford Motor, together with the premium brand Lincoln, decreased by 7.7 percent - to approximately 504 thousand cars. The result was impacted by tight supplies of the top-selling F-Series pickup truck due to fires at a major supplier last year, as well as the discontinuation of the Escape compact SUV.

The opportunity to overtake the 123-year-old Ford shows how Hyundai and its subsidiary Kia are benefiting from increased American demand for fuel-efficient cars, including gas-electric hybrids.

Ford spokesman Said Deep pointed out that the current situation reflects the rapid growth of car imports from Korea. Tariffs, currency fluctuations, labor costs and supply chains make it much more profitable to make cars there now than in America, he said. About half of Hyundai's U.S. sales come from domestic assembly. The company has promised to bring localization to 80 percent of sales by 2030, which would put it on par with Ford.