RVs, SUVs sweep top 4 spots in South Korea’s first-quarter auto sales

Recreational vehicles (RVs) and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) achieved an unprecedented feat by claiming the top four spots on the list of best-selling cars in South Korea.

According to the Korea Automobile & Mobility Association (KAMA) on Wednesday, Kia Corp.'s flagship SUV, the Sorento, topped the best-selling vehicles list in the first quarter with 26,929 units.

Hyundai Motor Co.'s Santa Fe SUV came in second with sales of 23,313 units, followed by the Kia Carnival RV with 22,681 units and the Kia Sportage SUV with 19,661 units.

The four top-selling vehicles all have hybrid variants.

The Hyundai Porter, a 1-ton truck, came in fifth with sales of 19,314 units.

NO SEDANS IN THE TOP FIVE

Not a single sedan model made it onto the top five local sales list – the first time to do so in five years for the January-March period.

In 2020, Hyundai’s luxury sedan Grandeur, the Hyundai Sonata and the midsize Kia K5 sedan were among the top five.

The compact Hyundai Avante sedan and the premium Genesis G80 sedan were among the top five for three subsequent years. The G80 ranked 10th in the first quarter with sales of 12,048 units.

The Hyundai Grandeur, which ranked top in the best-seller list last year, fell to sixth place in the first quarter of this year with sales of 13,698 units, down 54.1% from the year-earlier period.

Industry officials said the Grandeur’s weak first-quarter sales were partly due to a temporary suspension of production lines at Hyundai’s Asan plant early this year to build production facilities for electric vehicles.

The Genesis GV80 SUV ranked seventh with sales of 13,552 units in the first quarter, followed by the Kia Ray compact car with 12,794 units and the Kia Seltos compact SUV with 12,659 units.

MESMERIZED BY FUEL EFFICIENCY, VERSATILITY

Having a four-door passenger sedan was a status symbol in Korea decades ago.

Like in other countries, however, Koreans have increasingly fallen in love with SUVs and RVs as family cars.

Mesmerized by their high fuel efficiency and comfortable ride – this as a result of technological advancement – and versatile use of space inside, SUVs have become the name of the game in Korea’s vehicle sales market.

Just a decade ago, SUVs accounted for about a third of the Korean car market, with new SUV sales at 460,470 units in 2014. Since then, the SUV proportion has steadily increased to break the 40% resistance line in 2017 and rise above 50% just a few years later.

In 2019, SUVs outsold sedans for the first time in Korea. The gap widened to 121,000 more SUVs than sedans sold in 2020, followed by a difference of 242,000 units in 2021 and 343,000 vehicles last year.

According to the Korea Automotive Technology Institute, the appeal of sport utility vehicles in Korea is stronger than the trend globally. SUVs accounted for 40.8% of the world’s automobile sales in 2022.

Hyundai officials said they expect sales of the Grandeur sedan to return to normal levels, ranking high in the best-seller list, in the coming months as the Asan plant is now up and running as normal.

Write to Nan-Sae Bin at binthere@hankyung.com

In-Soo Nam edited this article.