South Korea July 2025: Kia Carnival topples Sorento to #1, Hyundai Palisade #3

The Kia Sorento is the best-selling vehicle at home for the first time since June 2024.

South Korean new light vehicle sales edge up 3.4% year-on-year in July to 138,099. This positive result is solely due to foreign manufacturers up 23.2% to 27,081 whereas domestic carmakers are down -0.5% to 111,018. The year-to-date tally is up 3.5% to 962,431, including 797,434 local manufacturers (+2%) and 164,997 foreigners (+11.8%). Hyundai (+5.9%) cements its leadership above sister brand Kia (-2.4%), it is the same situation year-to-date where Hyundai (+5.7%) is far above Kia (stable). Genesis (-23.1%) manages to stay in 3rd place despite a drastic year-on-year loss, but Tesla (+174.5%) is spectacularly catching up. BMW (+1.7%) and Mercedes (+2.4%) are more muted below. KG Mobility (+5.2%) follows ahead of Renault Korea (+172.3%). Polestar (+471.8%), Audi (+36.7%) and Mini (+26.1%) shine below.

Looking at domestic models, the Kia Carnival (+2.3%) is up two spots on June to its 4th ever pole position after June 2024, October 2020 and November 2022. It remains a distant #2 year-to-date, way below the Kia Sorento (-7.1%) down to #2 for the month, and ending a streak of 10 consecutive months at #1. The Hyundai Palisade (+374%) benefits from the new models to lodge its second podium finish in the past three months at #3. Outstanding score also from the Hyundai Avante (+54.6%) at #4 while the Kia Sportage (-13%) is in difficulty but still closes the Top 5. Below, notice the Hyundai Tucson (+28.4%) and Kia K8 (+81.1%). The Kia EV4 (#25) is the best-selling recent launch above the KGM Musso EV (#26), Kia Tasman (#28), KGM Actyon (#29) and Hyundai Ioniq 9 (#31).

As for foreign models, the Tesla Model Y (+304.1%) is up 4-fold year-on-year to continue its ruthless domination, it even ranks #3 in the overall ranking including domestic cars. The BMW 5 Series (+25.2%) is back above the Mercedes E Class (-8.4%) for #2 while the Mercedes GLC (+34.2%) stays #4. The BMW X3 (+646.6%), Mercedes S-Class (+46.3%) is up 8 ranks on last month to #8 and the Volvo XC90 (+62%) is up 22 to #21.

Previous month: South Korea June 2025: Kia Sorento and Hyundai Avante on top

One year ago: South Korea July 2024: Kia back  to #1, EV3 lands

Full July 2025 Top 32 All brands, Top 58 All domestic models and Top 50 foreign models below.