Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Corp.'s environment friendly vehicle sales in the United States more than doubled in August compared with a year ago, led by solid demand for their hybrid sport utility vehicles, industry data showed Wednesday.

Hyundai and Kia sold a combined 8,312 eco-friendly cars in the US in August, a 124.4 percent jump from a year earlier, according to their data.

Hyundai's eco-friendly car sales soared 245.4 percent on-year to 5,817 units in August, far surpassing Kia's 23.5 percent hike to 2,495 units over the period.

Among them, the hybrid variant of the Hyundai Tuscon SUV was the top-selling model in the segment with 1,965 vehicles sold in the market.

The hybrid model uses a combination of an internal combustion engine and a battery electric drive motor.

Other eco-friendly models include electric vehicles (EV) and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) powered by hydrogen.

The two automakers together have sold 69,446 eco-friendly vehicles in the first eight months of the year, up 192.6 percent from 23,733 units from the same period a year earlier, data showed.

Hyundai Motor Group, the world's fifth-largest automaker, aims to tap deeper into the growing eco-friendly vehicle market in US, with full electric models equipped with its dedicated platform.

Hyundai Motor is set to launch its Ioniq 5 SUV in the US later this year, while Kia plans to debut its EV6 SUV in the market next year. (Yonhap)