Hyundai Motor Company's booth at DIFA 2022 in Deagu / Courtesy of Korea Automobile Journalists Association

Hyundai Motor, Korea's biggest carmaker, said Tuesday its sales rose 12 percent last month from a year earlier despite an extended chip shortage.

Hyundai sold a total of 347,324 vehicles in October, up from 309,481 units a year earlier on steady sales of high-end models, the company said in a statement.

Domestic sales climbed 5 percent to 60,736 units from 57,813 during the period, while overseas sales were up 14 percent to 286,588 from 251,668, the statement said.

But Hyundai expected the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic, higher raw materials prices, higher interest rates and the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will remain major woes for the automobile industry.

The IRA excludes electric vehicles built outside North America from tax credits. The new law is widely expected to deal a blow to the Korean carmakers, which manufacture all of their EVs at home.

Hyundai revised down its annual vehicle sales target by 7 percent to 4.01 million units from 4.32 million set early this year.

From January to October, its sales rose 0.4 percent to 3,251,373 autos from 3,239,568 units during the same period of last year. (Yonhap)