28 November 2017

Korea Vehicle Sales : 2000-09

A record 57,000 were sold in Korea in 2005

Things continued to change in the Korean market. GM acquired Daewoo Motors, the Daewoo commercial division was taken by Tata, Renault likewise Samsung and SAIC took over SsangYong. Other than that it was business as usual.

Hyundai retained just under 50% market share for the decade. Its sibling brand Kia was consistently in the high 20's. 'Others' - being mainly SsangYong and Samsung - did increase their share but were a bit wobbly. Daewoo was the loser, dropping from 17% to a paltry 8%. 96% for local vehicles was huge and Daewoo's share of that was now very small. Imports rose from virtually non-existent to just noticeable.

Yr Hyundai % Kia % Other % Daewoo % Imports % Total
00 646,700 45 408,300 28 133,300 9 242,100 17 2,800 0 1,433,200
01 706,700 49 391,800 27 182,200 13 170,700 12 5,400 0 1,456,800
02 766,800 47 429,100 26 266,400 16 160,000 10 11,400 1 1,633,700
03 630,500 49 313,300 24 246,700 19 127,800 10 14,600 1 1,332,900
04 550,300 49 251,600 23 187,200 17 104,500 9 18,400 2 1,112,000
05 570,800 49 266,500 23 197,700 17 107,600 9 25,100 2 1,167,700
06 581,100 48 270,600 23 184,200 15 128,300 11 34,400 3 1,198,600
07 625,300 49 272,300 22 191,200 15 130,500 10 45,800 4 1,265,100
08 571,000 47 316,400 26 150,600 12 116,500 10 53,300 4 1,207,800
09 702,700 49 412,800 29 163,700 11 114,800 8 51,300 4 1,445,300

For the other two in the series, please click on the dates: 1990-992010-17.

26 November 2017

Korea Vehicle Sales : 1990-99


In a recent Australian car magazine it waxed lyrical about the Korean car industry. They had a Clark Kent style of man ripping his shirt apart to reveal a Korean flag on his chest. Call me cynical but I didn't buy the amazing rise of the industry because I know how much help it got and continues to get. Certainly Korea makes cars in goodly numbers but it is protected domestically by inordinate tariff barriers and has had government subsidies to help it along as well. No wonder it's so successful.

Of course it still has to make cars desirable in those markets that it has to genuinely compete and that has been achieved. The point I make is with the home market safely in its grasp, the profit made from that gives it a strong advantage.

Below in the chart we see Korean domestic sales by group. Hyundai and Hyundai Precision make up the first column. This is the most successful part of the Korean car industry. Through the 1990's it accounted for between 43-50% of local vehicle sales.

Then there is Kia and Asia Motors, the latter purchased by Kia in 1976 and gradually phased out. Kia itself filed for bankruptcy in 1997 and Hyundai moved in to become a shareholder and rescue it. It's share of the market varied form 21% to 35% over this decade.

Daewoo Motors was an ambitious company which along with Daewoo Heavy Industries had a reasonable share of domestic sales. It took over the troubled SsangYong company in 1998 but as that lasted only two years, SsangYong remains part of the 'Others' section. Daewoo/DHI ranged from 15 to 26% of the market.

Other Korean was mainly SsangYong which at best reached 9%. Also Samsung came along in 1998, but by 1999 it was already in trouble due to the Asian financial crisis. Lastly imports had just started and struggled to get 1% of sales due to the duties imposed. Would imports remain a rare treat for a privileged few?


Hyundai % Kia % Daewoo % Other % Imports % Total
Yr HDP
Asia
DHI
Korean

90 450,200 47 334,100 35 147,400 15 22,600 2 2,300 0 956,600
91 515,800 47 374,700 34 189,200 17 24,500 2 1,700 0 1,105,900
92 586,900 46 438,300 34 223,500 18 19,700 2 1,800 0 1,270,200
93 653,600 45 485,700 34 278,000 19 18,700 1 2,000 0 1,438,000
94 759,000 49 446,600 29 310,300 20 39,700 3 3,900 0 1,559,500
95 784,300 50 473,000 30 256,500 17 42,100 3 6,900 0 1,562,800
96 795,900 48 488,100 29 300,500 18 59,600 4 10,300 1 1,654,400
97 710,100 47 374,600 25 366,800 24 61,500 4 8,100 1 1,521,100
98 335,400 43 166,800 21 204,300 26 73,500 9 2,100 0 782,100
99 570,500 45 348,600 27 257,600 20 96,300 8 2,400 0 1,275,400

For the other two in the series, please click on the dates: 2000-09, 2010-17.
Picture credit: Ki hoon.

24 November 2017

Korea Car Sales By Brand : 2010-14

The top selling model in Korea for 2014, the Hyundai Sonata

In Korea, the top brands (yellow in the chart below) are the main selling brands. Imports have slowly been growing but still are small in comparison, thanks to tariff protection. The data below excludes commercial vehicles which would favour the local car makers if included.

Locally made cars have been relatively static, despite a reasonable increase in total sales. I don't have a breakdown of import sales by model so can only assess the totals seen below. Clearly some brands have done better than others for whatever reason.

10 11 12 13 14 Make 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
1 1 1 1 1 Hyundai 482,261 498,510 505,714 479,435 510,978
2 2 2 2 2 Kia 434,881 436,672 430,757 403,015 406,822
4 3 3 3 3 GM Korea 112,466 127,697 131,794 127,338 147,104
3 4 4 5 4 Samsung 155,697 109,221 59,926 60,027 80,003
5 5 5 4 5 Ssangyong 32,459 38,651 47,700 63,970 69,036
6 6 6 6 6 BMW 16,798 23,293 28,152 33,066 40,174
7 7 7 8 7 Mercedes 16,115 19,534 20,389 24,780 35,213
8 8 8 7 8 VW 10,154 12,436 18,395 25,649 30,719
9 9 9 9 9 Audi 7,920 10,345 15,126 20,044 27,647
12 13 12 11 10 Ford 4,018 4,184 5,126 7,214 8,718
10 10 10 10 11 Toyota 6,629 5,020 10,795 7,438 6,840
17 11 11 12 12 MINI 2,220 4,282 5,927 6,301 6,572
13 12 13 13 13 Lexus 3,857 4,111 4,976 5,425 6,464
16 15 14 15 16 Chrysler 2,638 3,316 4,123 4,143 5,244
20 20 18 16 15 Land Rover 944 1,383 1,916 3,103 4,675
14 18 17 17 16 Nissan 3,524 3,802 2,398 3,061 4,411
11 14 15 14 17 Honda 5,812 3,153 3,944 4,856 3,601
18 16 16 18 18 Peugeot 1,909 2,636 2,407 2,776 3,118
19 19 19 20 19 Volvo 1,638 1,480 1,768 1,960 2,976
15 17 22 22 20 Infiniti 3,118 2,152 1,103 1,116 2,777
23 21 20 19 21 Porsche 705 1,301 1,516 2,041 2,568
22 22 21 21 22 Jaguar 726 1,016 1,197 1,901 1,989
- - - 23 23 Fiat - - - 507 1,163
- 29 25 24 24 Citroën - 6 255 476 620
21 23 24 25 25 Cadillac 794 752 475 300 503
26 26 26 26 26 Bentley 86 102 135 164 322
27 27 28 28 27 Rolls Royce 18 27 27 30 45





Total 1,308,326 1,315,788 1,306,749 1,290,282 1,410,302

Data source: Kaida and Kama.

To see the first in the series, simply click here.