South Korea 6 months 2013: Kia Morning leads ranking gone mad

Kia Morning

* See the Top 40 best-selling models by clicking on the title! *

The South Korean new car market is up a shy 2% year-on-year over the first 6 months of 2013 to 745,181 registrations (including imports). It’s always fascinating to realise that South Korean brands have a relatively small playground at home and most of their success is obtained in export markets these days. While the models ranking has always has its ups and down on a monthly basis, it has probably never been as indecisive as this year. Market leader for 2 years running, the Hyundai Avante (aka Elantra) is down 19% to #5 in 2013 and that has sent the ranking into a totally unpredictable spin. Proof: only 429 sales separate the #1 and #4 halfway through the year! Even though it is down 1% year-on-year, the Kia Morning takes the top spot with 46,809 sales and 6.3%. But this is far from meaning it will be #1 by the time 2013 comes to an end because the race is totally open.

The Kia K3 is the best-performing all-new model at #8

#1 in June, the Hyundai Porter is, amazingly, the brand’s best-seller at home so far in 2013 at 46,671 units (+7%), followed by the Hyundai Grandeur stable with 46,556 sales and the Hyundai Sonata at 46,380 units (-2%). Boosted by the new model, the Hyundai Santa Fe is up 69% and 3 spots to #6 with 41,683 sales and 5.6%. In the meantime, the Kia K3 (aka Forte) delivers by far the best performance among all-new models, landing directly at #8 with 27,665 sales and 3.5%, while the Kia K7 is up 67% to #18.

The BMW 530D is the best-selling imported ‘version’ in South Korea so far in 2013.

Now. Imports sales data is very sparse for South Korea with only the Top 10 models by version (?! I know) published with one month delay. It appears in the source link I always put at the bottom of the local models rankings, but I don’t normally comment on it because to me a version ranking is not comparing apples with apples and disadvantages imports. However I thought it would makes sense to at least do this for the half-year summary and here we go: the BMW 530D ranks #32 overall with an estimate 4,900 sales and 0.7% and should be the only imported ‘version’ to rank within the South Korean Top 40.

Previous post: South Korea June 2013: Hyundai Porter surprise leader

One year ago: South Korea June 2012: Hyundai Santa Fe in pole position!

Full 6 months 2013 Top 30 Ranking Table below.