Apart from some luxury marques, the data below covers the vast majority of sales. The total market was down 7% with imports suffering the worst of that. As a market that heavily favours locally made - both with steep import duty and occasionally other means - it is dominated by a few domestic brands. Kia got close to regaining the lead it held briefly in 2022 but couldn't quite do it.
I can only assume the steep import duty is to protect the fragile and vulnerable Korean brands from being overwhelmed by superior foreign ones. Why else would they persist with it? They seem to get treated much more kindly when it comes to exporting as well.
Hyundai's premium marque Genesis is doing well and BMW extended its lead over Mercedes-Benz. KG Mobility (formerly SsangYong) retained sixth spot despite a 20% loss of market share. Renault Korea was formerly known as Samsung and did well with new models arriving. Chevrolet relies on locally made models and its exporting.
Imports lost two more marques for 2024 in the form of Jaguar and DS and Citroën a year previously. Nissan and Infiniti left in 2020. I did keep Renault sales apart from Samsung but now they are together under Renault Korea. The way some of the brands at the lower end of the list are faring, there may be more to follow.
I used to get Tesla from the internet as best I could but it is now provided by Kaida. It has either jumped markedly or the previous source wasn't reliable. I'll text Elon later to confirm one way or the other.
Kia has more top selling passenger car models and yet trails Hyundai on the list below. It's because light commercial vehicles are included and Hyundai is much stronger in that area. Just passenger cars and Kia is the more popular brand.
Data source: Kaida, Kama.
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