This year, the two carmakers performed poorly in the US and Chinese markets due to lack of SUV models and a diplomatic row.

In China, Hyundai and Kia suffered sharp sales declines due to a standoff over the installation of an advanced US anti-missile system on South Korean soil.

From January to October, Hyundai's sales in China, the world's biggest automobile market, plunged 48 percent on-year to 255,182 vehicles from 493,695 units. Kia's dropped 34 percent to 569,356 from 869,000.

Hyundai and Kia together form the world's fifth-largest carmaker by sales. They are the core affiliates of Hyundai Motor Group.

Their combined sales in the US also backtracked 10.4 percent to 1,067,077 from 1,190,934 during the 10-month period due to a lack of new models, particularly SUVs, demand for which is rising in North America.

Globally, the two carmakers sold 6,589,489 vehicles in the January-November period, down 6.8 percent from 7,068,421 units a year earlier.

They are widely expected to miss this year's sales target of 8.25 million autos given their performances in the past 11 months.

To revive overall sales next year, the two companies plan to launch more customized models and increase the number of SUVs to seven by 2020 in China and also raise the number of SUVs in the US to eight by the same target year. (Yonhap)