Korean finished car companies set new global sales goal

Torres [Courtesy of KG Mobility]

Five major South Korean finished car companies collectively sold about 7.99 million vehicles domestically and internationally in 2023, marking a fresh milestone by nearing the 80-million mark for the first time in five years since 2018.

According to industry sources on Wednesday, Hyundai Motor, Kia, KG Mobility, GM Korea, and Renault Korea Motors achieved a cumulative sales figure of 7,991,214 units in 2023, up 8.1 percent from the 7,393,334 units sold in 2022.

Domestic vehicle sales by these five automakers in 2023 amounted to 1,449,885 units, up 4.6 percent from the previous year, while their international sales hit 6,535,421 units, up 8.9 percent.

Until 2022, the automotive industry faced production disruptions due to shortages in semiconductor supply and supply chain bottlenecks. But pent-up demand persisted even as supplies were limited, and the alleviation of the semiconductor shortage from early 2023 led to an improvement in sales performance. Hyundai Motor’s Grandeur emerged as the best-selling model domestically in 2023 with sales of 113,062 units, followed by Hyundai’s Porter (97,675 units), Kia’s Sorento (85,811 units), and Kia’s Carnival (69,857 units).

By company, Hyundai Motor and Kia collectively sold 1,325,737 units globally in 2023, up 8 percent compared to the previous year.

The Torres is the driver behind KG Mobility’s domestic sales performance. Of the 63,345 KG Mobility vehicles sold in Korea last year, 34,951 or 55 percent were Torres.

Fellow automaker GM Korea escalated its sales by 76.6 percent to 468,059 units in 2023, with about 92 percent of the total sales attributed to exports. Models like Chevrolet Trailblazer and Trax crossover led to an 88 percent increase in GM Korea’s export figures in just a year.

But Renault Korea Motors was the sole company to experience a decrease in sales compared to the previous year. In the past year, the carmaker’s export performance dropped by 30 percent and domestic sales plunged by 58 percent.