Sales of Hyundai and Kia Motors plunged 30 percent in April in the Chinese market, where they are undergoing restructuring due to sluggish sales.
According to Hyundai and Kia Motors on May 8, the retail sales of Beijing Hyundai, the local joint venture of Hyundai Motor, fell 34 percent from the same month of last year to 46,000 units in April, while sales of Dongfeng Yueda Kia, the joint venture of Kia Motors, fell 19 percent to 24,000 units last month.
As a result, Hyundai and Kia's retail sales in China totaled 70,000 units last month, down 30 percent from a year earlier.
Hyundai Motor did not disclose the number of Chinese retail sales by model, but most of the models, including its flagship models, were estimated to have declined.
Kang Sung-jin, an analyst at KB Securities, said, "Based on the number of shipments by Beijing Hyundai, the number of shipments of its B-segment sports utility vehicle (SUV) ix25 seems to have shifted to a decline, which had posted a slight increase during the first quarter of this year."
Kia Motors' April sales decline was attributed to sluggish sales of its sedan lineup -- K2, K3 and K4 -- while sales growth of three new models, including Pegas, slowed.
The poor performance was attributed to a drop in demand for the Chinese auto industry itself and weak competitiveness of Hyundai and Kia, analysts said.
It is heard that Beijing Hyundai closed its Beijing 1 factory last month in accordance with the Chinese government's environmental policy and the falling operating rate due to sluggish sales.
"After the suspension of the Beijing Hyundai 1 factory, we have yet to decide how to operate it," a Hyundai-Kia official said. "The restructuring of the Dongfeng Yueda Kia 1 factory was not official results."