Tesla is on track to surpass Hyundai Motor Company (excluding Genesis) and rise to the second place in the domestic electric passenger car market.
Despite adverse conditions such as the electric vehicle chasm (temporary demand stagnation) and domestic market recession this year, Tesla surpassed 20,000 new registrations for the first time since entering the Korean market in 2017.
According to Kaizyu Data Research Institute on the 15th, the total number of newly registered Tesla electric passenger cars from the beginning of this year to November reached 28,498 units, narrowly beating Hyundai Motor Company (28,463 units) by just 35 units to claim second place. Kia holds the first place with 34,384 units.
Following them, KG Mobility ranked fourth with 6,016 units, being the only mid-sized domestic automaker to enter the top 10.
The four German automakers?BMW (5,974 units), Mercedes-Benz (4,409 units), Audi (3,313 units), and Volkswagen (2,460 units)?ranked fifth through eighth respectively. Hyundai’s luxury brand Genesis ranked ninth (1,405 units), and Porsche came in tenth (915 units).
If Tesla maintains its cumulative second place for the remaining month of this year, it will become the second top electric vehicle brand in Korea for the first time in four years since 2020, overtaking Hyundai Motor Company. In 2020, Tesla led with 11,826 units, surpassing Hyundai (9,604 units) and Kia (3,509 units), but it remained in third place for the following three years. This was because Hyundai and Kia effectively targeted domestic and international markets by launching their first dedicated electric vehicles, the Ioniq 5 and EV6, respectively, in 2021.
As a result, Tesla was unable to break out of the 15,000-unit range from 2021 to 2023, while Hyundai and Kia secured first and second places respectively with 24,042 and 18,087 units in 2021, and 38,336 and 34,146 units in 2022. Last year, Kia ranked first (35,576 units) and Hyundai second (28,384 units).
This year, Tesla is aiming to reclaim second place by surpassing 30,000 new registrations. This achievement stands out even more given the dual challenges of prolonged chasm in the domestic electric vehicle market and the recession in domestic demand.
In fact, the total number of newly registered electric passenger cars rose from 31,297 units in 2020 to 123,908 units in 2022, following an upward curve, but dropped to 115,822 units last year and stood at 117,160 units as of November this year.
Tesla’s resurgence is led by the sports utility vehicle Model Y (17,671 units) and the mid-size sedan Model 3 (10,319 units). This year, Tesla Korea lowered the price of the Model Y rear-wheel drive twice by 2 million KRW each time, bringing it down to 52.99 million KRW, and released a facelifted Model 3 in April.
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