South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group said on Monday it positioned third in first-half of global vehicle deals on increased top of the line model deals notwithstanding the absence of semiconductor chips.

Hyundai Motor, its independent Genesis brand and Hyundai’s smaller member Kia Corp. sold a sum of 3.299 million vehicles in global market in the January-June period, following Toyota Motor Group’s 5.138 million units and Volkswagen Group’s 4.006 million units, as per their sales information.

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In the first six months, expanded deals of Genesis models, the all-electric Hyundai IONIQ 5 and the pure electric Kia EV6 pushed up the Korean carmaker’s sales positioning, reports Yonhap news organization.

The group position bounced from fifth with deals of 3.475 million automobiles in the first half of 2021. The Korean automaker’s first-half sales fell 5.1 percent from a year sooner, faring better compared to its worldwide rivals.

Toyota Group’s deals declined 6%, Volkswagen Group’s dropped 14%, Stellantis’ shed 16%, and General Motors plunged 19%. Stellantis is a 50:50 joint venture set up through the consolidation of U.S. carmaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. and French automaker PSA Groupe.

Hyundai Motor said last week it will spend $424 million to construct an artificial intelligence (AI) research centre in the US to reinforce its edge in robotics technology innovation, a region it refers to as a key future development driver.

(inputs from IANS)