Hyundai-Kia had a rough month of May as sales declines throughout their lineups resulted in a 12 percent overall drop to 118,518 deliveries. The brands are down a total of 7.1 percent on the year to 531,446 sales.
Hyundai Motor reported sales fell 16 percent to 60,011 units in May; the automaker is down 4.8 percent on the year to 291,853 sales. Those figures include Genesis luxury division, which sold 1,752 cars in May and has sold 8,306 vehicles so far this year.
May also marked the first time ever that Kia's sales (58,507) eclipsed those of Hyundai when not including the Genesis models (58,259).
The lone bright spots in Hyundai's model range were the Accent subcompact and the Tucson compact crossover. Sales of every other model dropped in May.
The Accent was up 6.3 percent to 5,773 units while the Tucson set an all-time monthly record in May with a 44 percent jump over last year to 10,600 sales.
Meanwhile the compact Elantra dropped 26 percent to 16,407 sales; the Santa Fe duo of crossover slid 33 percent to 9,844 and the Sonata family sedan was down 21 percent to 12,605.
Sales at the Kia division were also down. The brand slipped 7 percent in May to 58,507 units; the brand is down 9.8 percent on the year, to 239,593 sales.
Unlike other automakers who are riding the strength of their light trucks, Kia's losses are spread throughout its lineup; every model in its lineup saw a sales decline in May except for the recently redesigned Forte compact model, which jumped 19 percent to 11,801 vehicles.
The Sportage compact crossover fell 18 percent to 7,001, the Optima slipped 0.9 percent to 10,789, the Soul was down 23 percent to 10,521 and the Sorento declined by 13 percent to 10,413 units.
Both Hyundai and Kia have leaned heavily on increased incentive spending this year compared to 2016. That didn't change in May.
Hyundai spent $3,166 per unit, a 51 percent increase year over year, while Kia spent $3,240 per unit, up 19 percent from last May, according to a forecast from ALG.
