Seoul: Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp. have achieved a significant milestone in their electric vehicle (EV) sales, with cumulative sales of EVs built on their dedicated EV platform surpassing 1 million units as of May, despite a general slowdown in global EV demand, company data revealed on Sunday.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the combined sales of EV passenger vehicles from these two automakers reached 1,024,948 units by the end of the previous month, as per the companies' investor relations data. This milestone highlights the success of Hyundai Motor Group's Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP), which underpins several of their EV models.

The Hyundai Motor Group launched its first model based on the E-GMP, the Hyundai Ioniq 5, in February 2021. Since then, other models based on this platform have been introduced, including Hyundai's Ioniq 6 and Ioniq 9, the Genesis brand's GV60, and Kia's EV3, EV4, EV5, EV6, and EV9. Nearly 80 percent of these E-GMP-based EVs have been sold outside South Korea, with the Ioniq 5 emerging as the bestselling model, having achieved cumulative sales of 417,000 units.

When considering all EV sales, including those not built on the E-GMP platform, the total cumulative EV sales for Hyundai and Kia reached 2,006,279 units by the end of last month. This figure underscores the companies' strong performance in the EV sector, despite challenging market conditions.