Kia Outsold Hyundai By A Lot Last Month. Sedans And Minivans Helped

Sales data from certain automakers is starting to roll in this week, and there’s already a little interesting news in the numbers I’ve already got. Kia outsold Hyundai again, and it did so by a rather large margin. What’s going on here?

This might be another Morning Dump where I use the term “k-shaped economy” to describe who is and who isn’t buying cars, because it’s starting to show up in the numbers. Tesla is hoping to lure buyers with yet another lower-level trim name, which reminds me of Toyota in the ’80s.

And, finally, China is tackling crappy electronic door handles. Finally!

Vans And Sedans Are Back, Baby!

I don’t want to overstate how big a deal it is that Hyundai lost a month of sales to Kia. Both brands are owned by the same parent company, and both had record Januarys. It’s good news all around. Also, this happens sometimes. Hyundai outsold Kia for the full year 2025 and, probably, will do so again this year.

What’s interesting about these sales numbers is that Hyundai and Kia share platforms and have almost entirely overlapping offerings, so there are some interesting assumptions to be made from the differences between the two brands.

The one I’ve mentioned before is that Hyundai sells the Santa Cruz, a small pickup truck, which it’s getting rid of after one generation. Kia, instead, sells an excellent minivan, and that minivan outsold the little trucklet nearly 5-to-1. The Carnival is also available as a hybrid, whereas the Santa Cruz has only been an ICE vehicle.

Hybrids have been doing well for both brands, as CEO Randy Parker noted:

“Hybrid demand was the star of the month, up more than 60%, showing just how strongly customers are embracing the strength, efficiency and advanced technology of our electrified lineup. This momentum gives us a powerful springboard into 2026 as we continue to expand choice and deliver the vehicles customers want most.”

That’s one of the differences, but there’s a more interesting one for me, which is that Kia’s new K4 outsells the Hyundai Elantra, 11,642 to 9,091. Even more fascinating to me is the fact that Kia moved 6,276 K5s versus 3,140 Sonatas.

Sedans! Affordable and attractive sedans! Again, this is only one month of data, and it’s possible that Kia dealers have more incentives or are being more aggressive in targeting buyers with bad credit. Or maybe it’s a trend. It’s something I’m going to be watching this year.

Only About A Third Of New Car Buyers Make Under $100,000

This is a continuation of yesterday’s TMD, which launched a lot of healthy debate over the new car market. With owners keeping cars longer, is it necessarily a surprise or even a bad thing that new cars have gotten so expensive? If someone who has an average income is able to keep a car running longer and avoid a car payment, is that necessarily a bad thing? Or, conversely, is it bad that someone making an average income can’t afford a new car every four years?

CNBC has some data this morning that won’t answer those questions, but can at least show the difference in markets:

“We have a different vehicle buyer today than we had just a few years ago,” Cox Automotive senior economist Charlie Chesbrough said Thursday during an auto analyst event. “The key takeaway here is that we’re seeing the average buyer here is much more affluent.”

Cox reports that the share of new-car buyers with incomes of less than $100,000 has dropped from 50% in 2020 to 37% last year, representing millions of lost sales. On the other end of the spectrum, the share of buyers with incomes of more than $200,000 has grown from 18% to 29% during that timeframe.

I think this represents an opportunity for some automaker, though I’m not sure who that automaker is at the moment.

Tesla’s New Cheapest Model Y Is Just Called The…

Tesla finally showed its de-contented Model Y and Model 3 late last year, and the company called these cars the Standard model. You know, the ones where they covered the glass roofs. That naming convention has been dropped, and now the Model Y is just the Rear-Wheel Drive or All-Wheel Drive. Credit to InsideEVs for noticing this:

The newly introduced Tesla Model Y All-Wheel Drive starts from $43,630 and has an EPA-estimated range of 294 miles on a full charge, making it the shortest-range Model Y in the lineup. Price-wise, it’s $2,000 more expensive than the base rear-wheel drive model with 321 miles of range, but $3,000 less than the Model Y Premium RWD. Compared to the Premium AWD, it’s $7,000 more affordable.

Nothing is changing, although this sort of reminds me of the way Japanese brands used to name vehicles. Remember when Toyota sold the Toyota Van and Toyota Truck? Tesla has been taking it in the shorts in California, but the governor of that state has launched a new EV tax credit there that could help them.

China Bans The Stupid Doors

There’s rarely universal agreement on a topic here at The Autopian, as we all have our own tastes and biases. One subject where there is, I believe, unanimous agreement is that there’s a style of motorized door handle that’s stupidly dangerous.

It’s been expected that China would follow through with its threat to ban them, and it sounds like it’s finally happening.

Per the AP:

All car doors must include a mechanical release function for handles, except for the tailgate, according to details released by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Monday.

Officials said the policy aims to address safety concerns after fatal EV accidents where electronic doors reportedly failed to operate and trapped passengers inside vehicles.

The new requirement will take effect on Jan. 1, 2027. For car models that were already approved, carmakers will have until Jan. 1, 2029, to make design changes to match the regulations.

I hope regulators here will do the same.

What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD

If you can believe it, it was 50 years ago this week that Paul Simon’s “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” was at the top of the Billboard 100 charts.

The Big Question

Looking at the current mix of cars from the Korean automakers (Kia, Hyundai, Genesis), what would you buy? If you’re in England, you can also get a Musso or whatever.

Top photo: Kia