South Korea February 2024: Market down, Kia and Sorento repeat at #1, Genesis GV80 breaks record

The Genesis GV80 ranks 6th overall in February.

The South Korean new car market falls an abrupt -21.4% year-on-year in February to 115,508, with local manufacturers down -20.7% to 99,271 and foreigners down -25% to 16,327. The year-to-date volume is down -12.4% to 231,385 including 202,065 domestic brands (-10.8%) and 29,320 foreigners (-22.6%). There are two reasons behind this poor performance: the Lunar New Year holiday falls in February this year and Hyundai Motors stopped production at two locations to retool for new models. As a result Hyundai sinks -33% year-on-year to 32.1% share and Kia (-12%), resisting much better, is the #1  brand at home for the second straight month. Genesis (+9.1%) defies the surrounding gloom to pass the 10,000 monthly sales milestone for the 4th time in a row. The Top 8 brands are unchanged vs. January with BMW (-4.6%) and KG Mobility (-44.8%) rounding out the Top 5 above Mercedes (-34.9%). GM Korea stuns at +77.9%, while Lincoln (+76.4%), Peugeot (+43.2%), Mini (+28.6%), Volvo (+16.2%) and Toyota (+5.9%) also post positive results.

In the domestic models ranking, the Kia Sorento (+82.7%) repeats at #1 and scores a fourth win in the past 5 months. The Kia Carnival (+32.3%) is up one spot on January to #2 while the Hyundai Santa Fe (+167%) is down one to #3 but still surges year-on-year thanks to the new generation. 72.6% of Kia Sorento sold this month are hybrid vs. 67.1% of Hyundai Santa Fe. The Kia Sportage (+22.9%) follows at #4 with the Hyundai Porter (-42.7%) imploding at #5. The Genesis GV80 (+178.1%) enjoys the benefits of a new model and breaks its all-time monthly volume record for the 2nd consecutive time, ranking at an outstanding 6th place vs. #22 over the Full Year 2023. Leader last year, the Hyundai Grandeur (-59.6%) freefalls to #9. That’s because the Asan plant, which produces the Sonata, Grandeur, and Ioniq 6, was shut down until the Lunar New Year holiday to install equipment related to the large electric SUV Ioniq 9.

As far as foreigners are concerned, the BMW 5 Series (-11.2%) towers above the competition with 2,160 sales, the only model with a four-digit figure. The Mercedes E Class (-40.9%) and BMW X5 (+42.6%) complete the podium like last month. The Volvo XC60 (+249%), Mercedes GLE (+213.5%) and Mini Countryman (+165.1%) also impress below.

Previous month: South Korea January 2024: Kia Sorento and Hyundai Santa Fe top declining market

One year ago: South Korea February 2023: Hyundai Porter and Grandeur top market up 19.7%

Full February 2024 Top 30 All brands, Top 50 all local models and Top 50 foreign models below.