Seoul, Jan 23 Hyundai Motor, South Korea's leading automaker, said on Thursday its net profit for 2024 rose 7.8 per cent from a year earlier owing to an increase in the global demand for eco-friendly vehicles.
Net profit came to 13.22 trillion won ($9.2 billion) on a consolidated basis last year, compared with 12.27 trillion won in 2023, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Operating income for the year fell 5.9 per cent on-year to 14.23 trillion won, while annual sales increased 7.7 per cent to a record 175.23 trillion won over the cited period, reports Yonhap news agency.
Hyundai Motor said it has set an annual sales target of 4.17 million units for 2025. Additionally, it aims for a 3-4 percent on-year increase in consolidated sales and an operating profit margin of 7-8 percent this year.
The decrease in operating profit was attributed to the depreciation of the South Korean won against the U.S. dollar late last year, leading to an increase in the provision of sales warranties.
Sales warranty provisions affect corporate earnings by reducing profit and increasing expenses when warranty claims are made.
In the fourth quarter, net profit totalled 2.47 trillion won, up 12.3 percent on-year. Operating profit fell 17.2 per cent to 2.82 trillion won, while sales gained 11.9 per cent to 46.62 trillion won.
Hyundai Motor said it sold 757,191 eco-friendly cars globally last year, marking an 8.9 percent on-year increase. This includes 218,500 electric vehicles (EVs) and 496,780 hybrid EVs.
The company's total vehicle sales last year reached 4,141,959 units. Of those, 1,066,239 units were sold in the fourth quarter.
In the fourth quarter, domestic sales slumped 4.6 per cent to 189,405 units. Global sales shed 1.6 per cent on-year to 876,834 units despite sales in North America growing 4.4 per cent to 294,383 units.
For the October-December period, the company's global sales of eco-friendly vehicles totalled 209,641 units, up 21 percent on-year, driven by an expanded hybrid lineup and increased sales of sport utility vehicle (SUV) hybrids in the North American market.
The automaker said it anticipates the current challenging business environment to persist, driven by various factors such as slowing growth in major markets, the so-called EV chasm and changes in the pace of industry development.
To navigate these challenges, the company said it plans to develop and implement systematic response measures for each internal division for all possible scenarios.
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