Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co. and its sister company Kia Motors Corp. emerged as the world’s fourth-largest carmaker in 2010 on solid sales in the United States and China, a Japanese market researcher said Tuesday.

Their combined output just surpassed 6.60 million units last year, up 23.6 percent from 5.34 million cars a year earlier, according to Fourin Inc. Hyundai and Kia are the flagship companies of Hyundai Motor Group.

Hyundai and Kia’s global ranking was up one notch from 2009, when their combined production was ranked fifth worldwide behind the Renault-Nissan alliance.

Last year, General Motors Co. was the world’s largest automaker, followed by Toyota Motor Co. and the Volkswagen Group.

The Japanese researcher said the rise in production numbers was due mainly to surging sales in China and the U.S. and full-scale production by plants in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Fourin, meanwhile, said China held its No. 1 car production status for the second consecutive year in 2010 by producing 18.26 million vehicles. Japan trailed China with 9.62 million units, with the U.S. following with 7.73 million. Germany came in fourth, and South Korea placed fifth.

The company added that Australia and Asian countries, excluding the Middle East, produced 39.49 million vehicles last year, or 50.5 percent of global output of 78.14 million cars. 

(Yonhap News)