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: 1990-99, 2010-17.

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.

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.