The sales battle between Kia and Hyundai escalated in 2021. But which two brands came to ruin the party?

One of Hyundai's best-selling models is the new-generation Tucson SUV.

Just a couple of months ago, Hyundai and Kia's sales in Australia were head to head, leading to a major battle between sister Korean brands.

End-September 2021 sales data showed Kia trailing Hyundai by just over 850 units at 53,316 units against Hyundai's 54,169 units.

The fight has been a serious one, given that Kia - Hyundai Motor Group's supposedly "secondary" brand - has never topped Hyundai's sales in Australia in a calendar year and was clearly poised to lash out.

But now, with the release of sales data for the end of 2021, it appears that the epic battle wasn't all that epic.

VFACTS data released this week shows Hyundai finished the year in third place with 72,872 sales, up 12.2% from 2020. It trailed Toyota (223,642) in first place and Mazda (101,119) in second.

Kia achieved a significant sales jump of 21.2% compared to 2020, resulting in 67,964 units sold, enough to rank fifth on the leaderboard.

Hyundai managed to widen the gap with Kia by 850 units to less than 5000 units in just three months.

Even the well-selling Sportage couldn't help Kia beat Hyundai's sales in 2021.

It doesn't seem like a huge amount, but given how close sales were between third, fourth, fifth and sixth place in 2021, it was enough for Hyundai to pull ahead.

Having said that, Ford, which took third place, scared Hyundai a lot. The Blue Oval brand ended 2021 with 71,380 sales, just 1492 vehicles less than Hyundai.

Ford's result showed a 19.8% increase over 2020, helped by continued strong sales of the Ranger (50,279) and Everest (8359), soon to be replaced.

Had Ford not experienced significant COVID and parts supply issues for its European-made Escape and Puma SUVs, the outcome could have been very different.

Hyundai also suffered from a shortage of inventory, especially high-quality versions of key models such as the Santa Fe and the new Tucson.

Sales of the Ranger kept Ford in fourth place in terms of total sales.

But the company managed to increase sales in October and remain stable in November, while Kia lagged behind both months. This allowed Hyundai to increase its lead.

Each brand has models in segments that no other brand has. For example, Hyundai is selling a second large SUV (Palisade) alongside the Santa Fe and a commercial van (Staria-Load).

The Kia Telluride large SUV has yet to be confirmed for Australia, and the Pregio commercial van has long since been abandoned.

On the other hand, Kia sells the Picanto microcar, a segment it dominates, and the Rio light hatchback. Hyundai no longer has offerings in any segment after dropping Accent and Getz.

Despite generally strong sales, Kia barely managed to stay in fifth place. Mitsubishi was right on the heels with total sales of 67,732 vehicles, just 232 units less than Kia.

The Triton was Mitsubishi's best seller last year.

Mitsubishi recorded a 16.1% jump from 2020 results, with each of its model lines increasing their share last year, with the exception of the discontinued Pajero.

The Triton ute was its top performer (19,232), followed by the aging ASX small SUV (14,764) and the all-new Outlander midsize SUV (14,572).

While the battle for third and sixth was close, it was clear between sixth-placed Mitsubishi and seventh-placed Nissan.

Nissan increased its sales by 7.7% last year to a record 41,263 registrations, but it appears to be in a sales battle with brands at the bottom of the top 10. The Japanese automaker just overtook Volkswagen (40,770), MG (39,025). and Subaru (37,015XNUMX).

With MG's skyrocketing growth and expansion plans in Australia, there's every chance the Chinese competitor will move up the sales ladder in 2022.

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