South Korea July 2019: Kia K7 up to record #2, Kia Seltos and Hyundai Venue land

The Kia K7 is the best-selling passenger car in South Korea in July.

The South Korean new car market drops -4.1% year-on-year in July to 148.055 units, with local carmakers down -3.9% to 128.602 and foreigners down -5.2% to 19.453. Year-to-date, the overall volume is down -4.3% to 1.011.718, handicapped by a -20% freefall by foreigners (128.805) while locals hold much better at -1.5% to 882.913. Hyundai (-4.3%) drives the market at 36.4% share vs. 39.8% so far in 2019 while Kia (-0.5%) is almost immobile at 31.6% vs. 28.6%. Below Ssangyong (-11.4%), Renault Samsung (+9.3%) and most strikingly Mercedes (+55.8%) impress with very solid gains ahead of GM Korea (-25.3%) and Genesis (+3.4%) also in tidy shape. Citroen (+48%), Rolls Royce (+45.5%), Jeep/Chrysler (+39.3%), Cadillac (+37.4%), Lexus (+32.5%), Porsche (+12.1%), Mini (+6.5%) and Volvo (+6.4%) also make themselves noticed further down.

The Kia Seltos lands at #14…

The local models ranking gets a reshuffle this month, with the Hyundai Porter (+29.4%) leaping to both the July and YTD lead, the Kia K7 (+149.1%) spectacularly pushed to 2nd place overall by a new generation – the nameplate’s highest ever ranking and 2nd incursion on the podium after February 2016 (#3). The K7 is therefore the #1 passenger car at home this month, outselling the recently relaunched Hyundai Sonata (+35.7%) as well as the Santa Fe (-25.3%) and Grandeur (-28.4%). The Samsung QM6 aka Renault Koleos (+50%) and Kia Bongo (+16.4%) are the only two additional Top 10 nameplates in positive. Below the Hyundai Palisade rallying back up 5 spots on June to #12, the Kia Seltos lands directly at #14 for its first appearance in the South Korean charts, well above its twin the Hyundai Venue landing at #25.

…while its twin the Hyundai Venue appears at #25.

For the first time we can share with you the Top 50 best-selling foreign models at the same time as the rest of the rankings this month. The Mercedes E-Class (+81.4%) soars to above 4.000 sales, which would place it just outside the Top 10 if combined with local models. Mercedes totally dominates the foreign models ranking, placing the S-Class (-4.7%) at #3, the GLC (+24.6%) at #4, the C-Class (+153.8%) at #6, the GLA (+460.2%) at #7 and the CLS at #10. The Mini Hatch (+44.2%), Lexus ES (+31.1%) and BMW 5 Series (+10.4%) also shine in the Top 10.

Previous month: South Korea June 2019: Hyundai Sonata repeats at #1 in difficult context (-7%)

One year ago: South Korea July 2018: Santa Fe, foreigners pull market up 4.1%

Full July 2019 Top 60 All-brands, Top 59 All local models and Top 50 foreign models below.