Korea's passenger vehicle market fell 2.7% in 2022 compared to 2021
- Korea's passenger car market fell 2.7% in 2022 compared to 2021, following an 8.8% decline in 2021 compared to 2020. South Korea registered 1,410,603 units last year, compared to 1,449,849 in 2021 and 1,599,002 in 2020. This is the lowest level since 2014, as the Korean market was approaching 1,600,000 units per year between 2015 and 2020.
- Like most other markets, Korea suffered from supply and logistics problems last year, although it is likely that this market has reached saturation point since 2015-2020. With a population of 52 million inhabitants, Korea represents in 2022 a number of passenger car sales located between Italy (1.3 million) and France (1.5 million) more populated countries (59 million and 67 million inhabitants respectively). In fact, with an estimated fleet of 26 million vehicles, Korea's motorization rate has now reached 500 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants, close to European countries ones. It proved that this market is gradually reaching saturation point.
- The Korean market leader remains by far the Hyundai-Kia group, which holds 71% of this market (compared to 72% in 2021). Far behind are Premium carmakers BMW and Mercedes, which together manage to occupy 12% of the Korean market, i.e. 6% each, which shows that there is a non-negligible demand on this market for this type of model that is not able to answer the Korean luxury brand Genesis which is integrated into the Hyundai-Kia group. The position of Renault-Nissan (ex-Samsung) is becoming fragile with only 4% of the Korean market, and Ssangyong being even more fragile, with 2% of the market.