Hyundai-Kia outsells Honda and Nissan It's now the world's fifth biggest carmaker

03 July 2008

Korean company Hyundai-Kia has become the world’s fifth biggest carmaker following huge growth over the past decade, new figures show.

The company – which was ranked in eleventh place in 1999 – is now out-selling rivals such as Honda, Nissan, Peugeot/Citroën, Chrysler and Fiat. 

Hyundai-Kia now sells almost 4 million vehicles a year worldwide, although it still has some way to go before it catches fourth-placed Ford.

Figures from Automotive News' 2008 global data also show that Toyota is the world’s biggest car company, followed by General Motors and Volkswagen.

Which? reliability survey

Hyundai was recently ranked in eighth place in the Which? Car reliability poll, while Kia came in at 16 in the survey of the world’s 38 biggest car brands.

Kia’s new Cee'd model has been highly rated by Which? testers.

Kia's chief executive, Ik-Hwan Kim, said: ‘Kia will continue to focus on producing a new generation of quality vehicles with distinctive design to keep the momentum of our brand growing.'

2007 worldwide sales rankings

1. Toyota - 9,366,000

2. General Motors - 8,902,252

3. Volkswagen - 6,191,618,

4. Ford - 5,964,000

5. Hyundai-Kia - 3,961,629

6. Honda - 3,831,000

7. Nissan - 3,675,574

8. PSA (Peugeot/Citroën) - 3,428,400

9. Chrysler - 2,676,268

10. Fiat - 2,620,864