Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Corp. said Wednesday their combined sales in the United States fell 18 percent last month from a year earlier due mainly to the prolonged chip shortages.

Hyundai and Kia sold a total of 120,731 vehicles in the US in April from 147,700 units a year ago, according to the companies' sales data.

Hyundai's sales declined 20 percent on-year to 61,668 units last month from 77,523 a year ago, while Kia's dropped 16 percent to 59,063 from 70,177 during the same period, the data showed.

The all-electric IONIQ 5 and the strengthened lineup of hybrid and plug-in hybrid models helped offset declines in sales of other models in the world's most important automobile market last month, Hyundai said.

From January to April, the carmakers' sales fell 9 percent to 431,601 autos from 474,380 during the same period of last year.

Sales results of Hyundai's independent Genesis brand were not immediately available. (Yonhap)