South Korea September 2024: Renault Grand Koleos up to #12

The Renault Grand Koleos aka Geely Monjaro has a blockbuster debut in South Korea.

New light vehicle sales in South Korea edge up 0.9% year-on-year in September to 130,416 units. This lift is only due to the good health of foreign manufacturers at +10.1% to 24,839 whereas locals are off -1% to 105,577. The year-to-date tally is down -6.9% to 1,196,952 including 1,002,221 locals (-7.9%) and 194,731 foreigners (-1.5%). Hyundai (-0.5%) is stable and ranks #1 at home for the 6th time in the past 7 months with 34.6% share. Far below at 29.3% of the market, Kia (-13.8%) follows and sees the gap with Hyundai year-to-date expand to almost 9,000 units including 7,000 for September only. Genesis (+24.9%) is in excellent shape at #3, surpassing the 10,000 monthly sales bar for the 11th consecutive month. Mercedes (+20.2%), BMW (+14.4%) and KG Mobility (+11.5%) also impress but the best performance of the month is delivered by Renault Korea at +203.5% year-on-year and up five spots on August to #6 with 3.8% share vs. 1.6% year-to-date. This is due to one single model as we’ll see further down.

In the local models ranking, the Kia Sorento (-35%) reclaims the top spot it holds year-to-date despite a damning year-on-year loss. The Hyundai Grandeur (-25%) is also in bad shape but manages to maintain itself in 2nd place. The Hyundai Santa Fe (+3.4%) advances to #3 above four surging models: the Kia Carnival (+12.2%), Hyundai Sonata (+65.9%), Kia K8 (+96.8%) up 12 spots on last month to #6 and the Hyundai Tucson (+45.6%). Up to #9 last month, the new Kia EV3 tumbles down to #22. Single-handedly pushing Renault Korea sales up, the Grand Koleos gains 38 ranks on its inaugural month to land at #12, accounting for 78% of the brand’s September sales. As a reminder the Grand Koleos is based on the Geely Monjaro. This is the highest monthly ranking for a Renault Korea model since the QM6 (Koleos) hit #10 in June 2022. Orders for the Grand Koleos have exceeded 15,000 units.

As for foreign models, the Mercedes E-Class (+40.8%) delivers almost 5,000 units, which places it at #4 in the overall models ranking (local + foreigners). This way, it snaps the YTD lead off the Tesla Model Y (-81.1%) imploding this month. The BMW 5 Series (+335.3%) ranks 2nd with just under 2,000 sales, distancing the Mercedes GLC (+185.6%) also in outstanding shape. The Mercedes S Class (+49.8%), BMW X3 (+114%) and Tesla Model 3 (+53300%!) also impress in the remainder of the Top 10.

Previous month: South Korea August 2024: Hyundai Sonata #1, Kia EV3 breaks into Top 10

One year ago: South Korea September 2023: Kia Sorento scores first win, Hyundai Santa Fe up to #5

Full September 2024 Top 30 All brands, Top 58 All local models and Top 50 foreigners below.