Electric vehicle models reached over 40 percent of Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors’ environmentally friendly vehicle sales in the January-October period, an automobile association said Dec. 9.

In the first 10 months, Hyundai and Kia sold a combined 291,237 eco-friendly models in global markets, according to the data from the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association.

Among them, plug-in hybrid electric, all-electric and hydrogen fuel cell EVs rose to account for 40.8 percent, or 118,731 units, while that of gasoline hybrid models was 59.2 percent, KAMA said.

 KAMA expects the ratio of gasoline hybrid models to end up at below 60 percent on lower demand for the whole of 2019.

As global carmakers are vying to gain a leading edge in the emerging EV markets, Hyundai and Kia plan to further strengthen their EV model lineup.

By Ram Garikipati and newswires (ram@heraldcorp.com)