Japan / Korea JLR Comparison : 2010-18

Can we learn anything from this comparison. Absolutely. They are in close proximity but there are clearly differences in mentality. Korea has import duty applied to vehicles entering the country, Japan does not. Sales in Japan are three times the number. So JLR has a much easier time in Japan. Er...not so fast.

The data:

This covers the past  the past nine years, so the 1.4 million figure for Korea is an average of the past nine years. Then we see Land Rover sales, Jaguar's and a combined number. After that the percentage Jaguar took of the two marques. At the bottom of the list we see a total for the nine years and a market share average for the same time length. Jaguar has 29% of JLR sales in Korea and 39% in Japan. The gap was wider in 2018 (24% to 45%).

	Korea						Japan
	1,427,992						4,301,238
Yr	LR	Jag	JLR	% Jag		Yr	LR	Jag	JLR	% Jag
10	944	726	1,670	43.5		10	727	1,138	1,865	61.0
11	1,383	1,016	2,399	42.4		11	890	1,020	1,910	53.4
12	1,916	1,197	3,113	38.5		12	1,771	1,014	2,785	36.4
13	3,103	1,901	5,004	38.0		13	3,347	992	4,339	22.9
14	4,675	1,989	6,664	29.8		14	3,126	1,073	4,199	25.6
15	7,171	2,804	9,975	28.1		15	2,979	1,349	4,328	31.2
16	10,601	3,798	14,399	26.4		16	3,165	2,883	6,048	47.7
17	10,740	4,125	14,865	27.7		17	3,597	2,614	6,211	42.1
18	11,772	3,701	15,473	23.9		18	3,964	3,260	7,224	45.1
Tot	52,305	21,257	73,562	28.9		Tot	23,566	15,343	38,909	39.4
%	0.41	0.17	0.57			%	0.06	0.04	0.10

The conclusion: 

Considering Japan's car market is three times larger makes a massive difference. All the facts point to one eventuality but reality is quite the opposite. Despite the clear advantages Japan offers, JLR has a much stronger presence in Korea. JLR sales are close to 0.6% of the total in Korea but just 0.1% in Japan. 

Of course, brands have somewhat differing results but the trend is still there. Koreans buy more premium cars per head so that is a factor not to be denied. Still, whatever the reasons, Korea is a much more successful market for JLR.