Korean Cars Rank 3rd in US and European Markets, Underperform in China

The Popularity of Eco-Friendly Cars Is the Main Cause

On the 9th, visitors are looking at the Hyundai electric vehicle Ioniq 5 equipped with an SK Innovation battery at 'InterBattery and 2021 xEV Trend Korea' held at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

Despite the global shortage of automotive semiconductors, Korean cars have achieved the remarkable feat of ranking third in market share in Europe for the first time.

The Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association (KAMA) announced on the 22nd that this result was revealed through an analysis of sales trends in major overseas markets for the first quarter of this year, utilizing statistics from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) and others.

According to KAMA, total car sales in the European market for the first quarter of this year recorded 2.75 million units, down 10.6% compared to the same period last year due to the semiconductor supply shortage and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. On the other hand, sales of Korean-made cars during the same period increased by 21.3% to 270,000 units.

It was analyzed that Hyundai Motor Group’s eco-friendly vehicle sales rose by 59.4% compared to the same period last year, boosting overall sales. With this strong performance, Korean cars secured a 9.8% market share, ranking third in the European market for the first time, following Volkswagen (23.8%) and Stellantis (19.0%).

KAMA explained that although sales in the U.S. market sharply declined in the first quarter of this year due to inventory shortages and high oil prices, domestic brands showed relatively strong performance with a smaller decrease.

Car sales in the U.S. market for the first quarter of this year recorded 3.28 million units, down 15.8% compared to the same period last year. Among these, sales of domestic brands decreased by only 3.7%, reaching 320,000 units. Competitors Toyota, GM, and Ford saw declines of 14.7%, 20.4%, and 17.1%, respectively.

In particular, Hyundai Motor Group’s dedicated electric vehicles Ioniq 5 and EV6 gained great popularity, causing electric vehicle sales in the first quarter to surge by 439% to 17,000 units. Korean cars also achieved third place in market share in the U.S. market, following American brands (43.5%) and Japanese brands (37.3%).

On the other hand, the Chinese market has recently shown a continuous decline. Although car sales in the Chinese market for the first quarter of this year increased by 6.2% compared to the same period last year to 6 million units, sales of Korean vehicles fell by 39.3% to 94,000 units.