South Korea November 2020: Hyundai Tucson up to #4 in improving market (+7.3%)

The new generation lifts Hyundai Tucson sales up 128.4%.

As the end of the consumption tax cut nears and carmakers heavily discount some models, the South Korean new car market remains in frank positive in November at +7.3% to 171.027 including 143.591 local brands (+7.2%) and 27.436 foreign marques (+7.3%). The year-to-date tally is up by a similar 7.1% to 1.710.150 including 1.466.710 locals (+6.1%) and 243.440 foreigners (+13.4%).

Hyundai (+5.5%) remains the most popular carmaker at home and benefitted from its ‘Korea Sale Fiesta’, which offered up to 10% discount on 13.000 vehicles. Kia (+3.9%) is more modest in 2nd place while Genesis (+162.9%) brilliantly holds onto the third spot just above Ssangyong (+0.3%).  In contrast, Renault Samsung (-10.8%) and GM Korea (-10.5%) struggle, the latter partly due to labor union strikes. Mercedes (+6%) advances to 6th overall and leads foreign carmakers above BMW (+18.7%), Audi (+9.5%) and Volkswagen (+32.3%).

Model-wise, the Hyundai Grandeur (+11.9%) reclaims the top spot off the Kia Carnival (+71.7%) with the Hyundai Porter (-4%) rounding out the podium like last month. The hero of the month is the Hyundai Tucson as the new generation of the model pulls it up 128.4% year-on-year and 11 spots on last month to 4th place overall. The Kia K5 (+157.8%), Hyundai Avante (+67.1%), Palisade (+37.9%), Kia Sorento (+25.2%) and Bongo (+15.3%) also make some noise in the Top 10. The first 15 units of the new Genesis GV70 SUV are registered this month.

Previous month: South Korea October 2020: Kia Carnival secures first ever win, sales gains slow to 1.8%

One year ago: South Korea November 2019: Hyundai Grandeur fights off Sonata to #1

Full November 2020 Top 30 All-brands and Top 60 All local models below.