Barrons Newspaper Says Hyundai and Kia Want a Podium Finish

Barrons Newspaper has said in its publication that it’s another sign that the entire auto industry is going all-in on EVs.

Hyundai didn’t name the companies in the top two, but that is no secret: Tesla TSLA +1.66% ranks first globally for EV sales and BYD (1211. Hong Kong) is second. Tesla sold 1.31 million electric vehicles in 2022—almost 20% of the total number of battery-electric vehicle sales worldwide. BYD sold about 911,000 all-battery electric vehicles.

Hyundai and Kia sold roughly 327,000 all-electric vehicles in 2022, combined. Volkswagen (VOW.German) group sold roughly 572,000 all-electric vehicles. VW is third as long as investors look at all the company’s brands.

Ford Motor (F) sold almost 100,000 last year. General Motors (GM) sold about 39,000 EVs in the U.S., and it sold about 400,000 mini-EVs in China through a joint venture with SAIC.

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Ascending to third place will take cash. Hyundai and its related companies plan to invest more than $18 billion between now and 2030 to make that happen said Barrons Newspaper.

Wall Street doesn’t typically have estimates that go out to 2030, but the forecasts for Tesla sales range widely—from five million to 10 million EVs a year by 2030. BYD should be roughly the same size as Tesla by the end of the decade. It is currently growing faster than Tesla, partly because it is selling lower-priced EVs. Ford plans to be selling two million EVs a year, at least, by 2027. GM wants to be selling only EVs by 2035.

Hyundai and Kia probably need to be selling three million to four million a year to ensure a third-place finish.

Those are just a few other data points for comparison, but no matter how you add it all up, it equals a lot of EVs.

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Roughly 80 million to 90 million light vehicles are sold around the world each year.

Tesla and Ford’s shares are both up more than 1% in Tuesday trading. GM shares are off about 1%. The S&P 500SPX +0.27% and Dow Jones Industrial AverageDJIA +0.52% are up 0.2% and 0.5%, respectively.

Hyundai and Kia’s shares rose 3.3% and 4.9%, respectively, in overseas trading. Those moves were made before Hyundai updated its EV goals.