Seoul, Aug 15 (IANS): South Korea's Hyundai Motor Group said on Monday it ranked third in first-half global vehicle sales on increased high-end model sales despite the lack of automotive chips.

Hyundai Motor, its independent Genesis brand and Hyundai's smaller affiliate Kia Corp. sold a total of 3.299 million vehicles in global markets in the January-June period, following Toyota Motor Group's 5.138 million units and Volkswagen Group's 4.006 million units, according to their sales data.

In the first six months, increased sales of Genesis models, the all-electric Hyundai IONIQ 5 and the pure electric Kia EV6 pushed up the Korean carmaker's sales ranking, reports Yonhap news agency.

The group's ranking jumped from fifth with sales of 3.475 million autos in the first half of 2021.

The Korean automaker's first-half sales fell 5.1 per cent from a year earlier, faring better than its global competitors.

Toyota Group's sales declined 6 per cent, Volkswagen Group's dropped 14 per cent, Stellantis' shed 16 per cent, and General Motors plunged 19 per cent.

Stellantis is a 50:50 joint venture set up through the merger 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 build an artificial intelligence (AI) research centre in the US to bolster its edge in robotics technology, an area it cites as a key future growth driver.