Hyundai and Kia near 10 million green cars, and 5.6 million of them are hybrids

Hyundai and Kia are on track to pass 10 million cumulative global sales of eco-friendly vehicles by the end of this year, roughly 18 years after Hyundai launched the Avante Hybrid and Kia the Forte Hybrid in 2009 ^[1]. The composition of that number is the story, not the number: of the 9,229,837 units sold through the end of the first half, hybrids account for 5,623,312, or 60.9 percent ^[2][3][4].

Battery EVs are 2,794,248 units, or 30.3 percent ^[5][6]. Plug-in hybrids are 762,633 and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles 49,644 ^[7][8]. Add hybrids and PHEVs together and 6,385,945 units, 69.2 percent of the milestone, still burn gasoline ^[9]. Hydrogen, after two decades of Hyundai positioning, is half a percent ^[10].

The model rankings say the same thing more bluntly. The best-selling hybrid is the Hyundai Tucson Hybrid at 854,535 units, followed by the Kia Niro Hybrid (805,041), Sportage Hybrid (658,800), Sorento Hybrid (484,631) and Santa Fe Hybrid (433,872) ^[11]. The EV list is led by the Ioniq 5 at 511,707, then Kona Electric (451,593), Niro EV (332,640), EV6 (309,522) and EV3 (193,187) ^[12]. The Tucson Hybrid has outsold the Ioniq 5 by 67 percent ^[13]. On the Niro, where buyers choose between powertrains on the same nameplate, the hybrid has outsold the EV 2.4 to one ^[14]. Both segments are top-heavy: the five biggest hybrids are 57.6 percent of all hybrid volume, the five biggest EVs 64.4 percent of EV volume ^[15][16].

First-half sales this year rose 22.7 percent to 1,064,542 units ^[17]. Hybrids were 705,002 of that, up 26.8 percent, and EVs 332,083, up 26.8 percent ^[18][19]. Identical growth rates on a base twice the size means the mix is not rebalancing. The Sportage Hybrid rose 21.0 percent and the Sorento Hybrid 19.4 percent ^[20], which is what hedging looks like when it works: hybrid versions bolted onto SUVs that already sell.

The EV recovery is real but it is being carried by new, cheaper nameplates rather than the flagship line. The EV4 rose 509.3 percent to 20,224 units and the EV5 552.0 percent to 37,531, while the PV5 sold 32,095 and the EV2 18,694 ^[21][22]. Those four are 108,544 units, 32.7 percent of first-half EV volume ^[23]. The Ioniq series, meanwhile, is in a broad slump, which is why Hyundai is introducing the Ioniq 3 for Europe and the Ioniq V for China this year ^[24].

One framing in the Seoul Economic Daily account deserves pushback. Growth has not steepened every year: annual green-car sales went from 1,020,196 in 2022 to 1,361,386 in 2023, a 33.5 percent gain, then to 1,414,567 in 2024, up only 3.9 percent, before 1,755,944 in 2025, up 24.1 percent ^[25][26][27]. 2024 was close to flat. An industry official told the paper that annual eco-friendly sales should top 2 million for the first time this year, which against the roughly 7.5 million group target would put more than one in four vehicles in the category ^[28].

The next hedge is the extended-range EV, where the engine charges the battery but never drives the wheels ^[29]. Hyundai plans the GV70 EREV in North America next year, targeting more than 80,000 units annually there and more than 30,000 in China, with Kia adding an EREV pickup for North America by 2030 ^[30][31]. That is a stated ambition of over 110,000 units a year ^[32].

Watch whether the Ioniq 3 and Ioniq V arrest the flagship slump or whether EV volume keeps migrating to small, low-priced nameplates, since the two outcomes carry very different margins. Watch the hybrid attach rate on the newly hybridised Palisade and Telluride ^[33]. And watch whether EREV buyers are converts from combustion or defectors from the EV line.