"It is clear that new sales in January will be down from a year ago and 2021 is hard to gauge," said Juergen Keller, managing director of the South Korean carmaker's German arm in an interview.

"But many customers are now open to EVs and I am convinced that the momentum will last," he said.

Momentum came from a Berlin government stimulus package in the summer to boost demand for a low-carbon economic recovery, which included moves to cut pollution from combustion engines.

In November, Berlin allocated 1 billion euros to extend to 2025 a buyer rebate for EVs that had been planned to end in 2021.

Hyundai Deutschland, which narrowly expanded its market share to 3.60% from 3.59% in 2019, benefited from the incentives, from a wider EV product range than German rivals and quick availability of its EVs.

Some 30.7% of its sales in 2020 were made up of electric or hybrid cars that combine batteries with combustion engines, while for German car sales overall, the share of alternative propulsion was 24.7%.

Hyundai saw a decline in lucrative private passenger cars by 6.4% in the year, compared with a fall seen across the German market of 12.9%.

In 2021, Hyundai will upgrade its EV portfolio, launch new EV models, having started supporting customers with wallbox offerings for home charging and cooperating with utility EnBW, which provides electricity and EV payment systems.

(Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by Steve Orlofsky)