South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. and its sister company Kia Motors Corp. ranked as the best-selling passenger carmakers in Canada in the first half of this year, industry sources said Thursday.

The two leading automobile makers in South Korea sold a combined 64,671 passenger cars in the North American country in the January-June period for a market share of 18.2 percent, according to the sources.

The figure is higher than the 42,734 units sold by U.S. automaker General Motors Co. (GM) and 40,620 cars sold by Japan's Toyota Motor Co. in the six-month period.

Hyundai and Kia are the flagship companies of Hyundai Motor Group, which is currently the fourth-largest producer of cars in the world.

The strong sales figure comes after Hyundai and Kia emerged as the best-selling carmakers in the North American country in 2010 when they sold 108,304 passenger vehicles. In the previous year, they stood at third place after Toyota and Honda Motor Co.

Hyundai said the Canadian government's move to emphasize cars with high fuel economy has spurred demand for such fuel-efficient vehicles as the Accent, the Avante and the Sonata hybrid.

The combined sales of all types of vehicles made by the two carmakers, including sport utility vehicles, stood at fourth place overall in the January-June period. Hyundai and Kia sold 101,816 cars in Canada, trailing Ford Motor Co., GM and Chrysler Group LLC. (Yonhap News)