Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Corp. said Wednesday their combined sales in the United States rose 6.4 percent in February from a year earlier despite the prolonged pandemic and chip shortages.

The corporate duo sold a total of 105,088 vehicles in the world's most important automobile market last month from 98,797 units a year ago, according to the companies' sales data.

Hyundai's US sales jumped 10 percent to 55,906 units from 50,735 over the cited period and Kia's also climbed 2.3 percent to 49,182 from 48,062.

Hyundai's figures include sales results of its independent Genesis brand's sales.

"Our recent marketing efforts with Tucson and IONIQ 5 have worked well to generate awareness in competitive segments," Randy Parker, senior vice president in charge of national sales at Hyundai Motor America, said in a statement.

With first-month sales of the all-electric Kia EV6 sedan exceeding 2,100 units, the company is confident that even more consumers considering their own shift to EVs will now consider Kia, Eric Watson, vice president in charge of sales operations at Kia America, said in another statement.

From January to February, the carmakers' US sales were up 4.8 percent to 199,086 autos from 189,970 units during the same period of last year.

This year, Hyundai and Kia aim to sell a combined 7.47 million vehicles in global markets, up 12 percent from their sales of 6.67 million units last year. (Yonhap)