South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. and its smaller affiliate Kia Motors Corp. said Thursday that they posted record monthly sales in Europe last month on growing demand for their strategic car models targeting local customers.

Hyundai Motor said that its Europe sales in March came to 48,215 units, up 11.9 percent from the previous year when it sold 43,076 cars. This marked the largest monthly sales following 48,001 units recorded in March 2012, according to South Korea's (Yonhap) News Agency.

Hyundai saw its market share in Europe stagnate at below 6 percent in the first two months of the year after a setback in 2013 when it fell to 6 percent from the previous year's record high of 6.2 percent.