Elon Musk takes notice as Kia, Hyundai climb EV sales chart

Yahoo Finance autos reporter Pras Subramanian examines Tesla CEO Elon Musk's acknowledgement of Hyundai and Kia's rising sales figures within the EV space.

Video transcript

DAVE BRIGGS: Quickly, Tesla has a 60% market share. They probably get about 90% of the press, though. And there is Hyundai, and there's Kia, some of those guys that might deserve some more press. What are we seeing from them in the EV space?

PRAS SUBRAMANIAM: Yes, so Hyundai and Kia, the two Korean twin companies there, two new EVs, the Hyundai Ioniq 6 and the Kia EV-- I'm sorry, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and the Kia EV6. Two kind of cars that are really hitting the mark here. They're actually selling more than the Ford Mach-E which is kind of surprising. Now, they sold about 22,000 vehicles through May, which is a good amount, but Tesla sold 300,000 Model 3's and Model Y's through the Q1 alone. So a long way to go there.

But hey, look, I drove the Kia EV6. You see it right there. Good stats, right? $41,000 start base price, 230 miles of range. You can upgrade that with a bigger battery. 160 horsepower not the best, but you can get 320 later if you want to get the better, bigger motor. And you get that full tax [INAUDIBLE] that Tesla does not get because they phased out. So this is a pretty good deal. I drove it. It's a nice car, stylish inside and out.

DAVE BRIGGS: It's a good-looking ride. And there's some individuality in the space, rather than the same Model Y and-- anyway, we could go on and on. Senior autos reporter Pras Subramanian, good to see you. Those are good-looking cars. Enjoy the Kias. All right.