Hyundai Motor Co. and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors Corp. said Tuesday that their combined sales in China grew for the first time in six months in October.
  

The two leading South Korean carmakers said that they sold a total of 156,575 vehicles in China last month, up 4.7 percent from a year earlier.
  

This followed an 11-percent drop in the previous month. It also marked the first rise since April when they posted 2.4 percent growth in total sales.
  

Hyundai Motor sold 100,069 cars last month in China, an 8.2 percent increase from a year earlier, while Kia Motors saw its sales inch down 0.9 percent to 56,506 units, the data showed.
  

The rebound was attributed to brisk sales of newly launched models such as the Tucson, the Sonata of Hyundai Motor and the new edition of the K5 by Kia Motors.
  

They expected that their China sales will likely improve further down the road, vowing to unveil more "competitive" new models and ramping up marketing efforts there.
  

Their cumulative sales in China for this year still remained stagnant. During the January-October period, the two sold around 1.28 million units, down 9.7 percent from a year earlier. (Yonhap)