Hyundai Motor on Thursday announced second quarter profit for 2020 fell 75% on year, the steepest in seven quarters and missing analyst estimates, as weak global demand due to the pandemic overshadowed sales of high end models in South Korea.
Its global retail sales fell 33% year on year while domestic sales of 200,000 vehicles rose 13%, better than in other markets, company data cited by Reuters showed.
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Other markets, including the US, China, Europe and India, saw double digit percentage sales falls.
Analysts told Reuters domestic sales were led by large cars and sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) such as the Genesis G80 sedan and GV80 SUV plus the Hyundai Grandeur sedan.
But sales of such higher margin cars were not enough to offset a plunge in demand in Europe and especially in the US which is reeling from daily surges in COVID-19 cases.
Net profit for April-June fell to KRW227bn (US$189.53m) from KRW919bn a year earlier.
That compared with the KRW275bn won average of 16 analyst estimates compiled by Refinitiv, cited by Reuters.
Revenue fell 19% to KRW21.9 trillion.
