Registrations were up 4% with imports down 4%. The 'Diff' column shows market share change, with Hyundai in particular doing well. Both it and Kia have over a third of the market and if one adds Genesis into the mix, three in every four cars sold in Korea is by the Hyundai Group. Staggering!
SsangYong or KG Mobility as it is now known in Korea was down and Renault Korea (née Samsung) is sliding downward as it reinvents itself. Chevrolet too makes cars here and it had a tiny sales increase but lost a tiny share of the market.
As for the rest, their share is 16.5%, higher than Japan but not still very low. Citroën left last year but Polestar arrived. Jaguar sold one car in November and none in December and it appears that the marque has been dropped in Korea. GMC arrived in February 2023 with the Sierra pickup truck. Mind you I don't know if there will be much yee hawing around Seoul.
There are a few minor premium and luxury brands not reported here but most are. Still, that really isn't a long list of brands but there is no real incentive for a mainstream brand to do battle for a few car sales. Heavy import duty keeps them away. Are local brands like Hyundai and Kia so feeble that they couldn't survive without strong protection? It seems so.
Lexus and Land Rover are doing well so far after each had a poor 2022 but VW and Honda are not looking too flash in 2023. Neither BMW nor Mercedes have had a great year but the same cannot be said of Porsche. As usual mostly tough times for vehicle importers in Korea.
Data source: KAMA, KAIDA.
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