Hyundai US market share growth outpaces every rival, and bigger plans are coming

Hyundai Motor Group’s Hyundai US market share growth has outpaced every other major automaker this decade, rising from 8.4% in 2020 to 11.8% through the first half of this year, according to data from Mobility Global. The group, which includes the Hyundai, Kia and Genesis brands, now ranks as the fourth best-selling automaker in the United States.

That climb has been built on a combination of competitive pricing, a widening vehicle range and, increasingly, a push to manufacture more cars on American soil. Group sales have grown 50% since 2020, and the company’s shares on the Korea stock exchange are up nearly 250% over the same period.

The Georgia plant at the heart of Hyundai US market share growth

Central to the strategy is a new $7.6 billion factory in Georgia. HMG Metaplant America is Hyundai Motor Group’s first dedicated mass-production electrified vehicle plant, currently producing the all-electric Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 9, as well as the Kia Sportage hybrid. Additional models are expected in coming years.

Hyundai Motor Co. CEO José Muñoz, a Spanish-US dual national and the first non-Korean executive to lead the automaker, told CNBC the company is considering plans to increase the plant’s production capacity from 500,000 units to between 700,000 and 800,000 units by 2028. If realised, that would make it the largest vehicle assembly plant in the country. “For that purpose, we need to add more capacity,” Muñoz said. “We are ramping up as fast as we can.”

The broader investment behind this push is a $26 billion plan through 2028, the largest in Hyundai’s US history. The goal is for the group to produce at least 80% of the vehicles it sells in the US domestically by the end of the decade, up from roughly 40% in 2024.

Tariffs, ambition and a “Bold 2030 Vision”

Muñoz said President Donald Trump’s tariffs, including a 15% levy on autos from South Korea, have played a role in accelerating the company’s localisation plans. “Tariffs are helping accelerate our localization plan. That’s very, very simple,” he said. “The good thing is that we had already started before tariffs were announced. So in a way it’s helping us to accelerate.”

The wider ambition is laid out in what Hyundai calls its “Bold 2030 Vision,” which targets global sales of 5.55 million vehicles (an increase of roughly 35% from last year’s figures) along with a 6% targeted global market share for the Hyundai and Genesis brands. Muñoz reconfirmed those plans at the company’s 2026 CEO investor day.

Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung, speaking to CNBC last week, was characteristically measured about the pace of expansion. “It’s important, but speed doesn’t matter. How we grow in the right way [is what matters]. I think that’s more important.”

No other major automaker comes close to the group’s US market share gains this decade. According to Mobility Global, Tesla is the only company even in the same territory, at an estimated 2.1 percentage point increase, while most rivals have been flat or down. Muñoz said the US performance has helped Hyundai Motor Group become the third best-selling automaker globally and the second most profitable based on operating income.

Kia, Genesis and new vehicle territory

Kia’s US sales have grown around 45% since 2020, and the brand’s CEO, Ho Sung Song, said earlier this year that it is targeting US sales of 1.02 million vehicles by 2030. Kia is planning to move into pickup trucks and larger “body-on-frame” SUVs to help reach that figure. Eric Watson, Kia America vice president of sales operations, described it as “an important piece of our growth strategy” while noting further details would be announced in future.

Hyundai is also planning body-on-frame vehicles, including a midsize pickup truck. Earlier this year the company debuted a concept called the Boulder, which could point toward additional US production capacity for such models. “It’s a new unexplored territory for us,” Muñoz said.

At the luxury end, Genesis has become what the company describes as the fastest-selling luxury brand to reach one million global sales. Hyundai has announced more than 100 vehicle launches and refreshes across the Hyundai and Genesis brands by 2030, including 58 in North America, with a significant expansion of electrified and extended-range hybrid options.

Stephanie Brinley, associate director of Mobility Global’s AutoIntelligence, summed up the group’s formula plainly: “Both Kia and Hyundai are really good at being able to offer more in the vehicle than the consumer expects, and that they expect at that price point. It’s not about being a ‘cheap car.’ It’s just being able to offer a little bit more than expected.”

Muñoz, whose priorities he spelled out to CNBC as simply “U-S-A,” confirmed those plans stand firm as the company prepares its next phase of growth: “We want to offer the customer the right product, the right features at the right level of price.”