This article was published on August 24, 2020

Can you guess South Korea’s two most popular EVs this year?

They're not totally surprising


Can you guess South Korea’s two most popular EVs this year?

Despite there being an ever-growing choice of EVs on the market, in South Korea just two vehicles dominate the market.

According to figures from EV Volumes, compiled by Clean Technica, the Tesla Model 3 sold 6,888 units between January and July this year.

This was followed by the Hyundai Kona EV, which sold 5,125 units over the first seven months of the year. This isn’t so surprising, though, given that Hyundai is a South Korean company and the Kona is made in the country, in the coastal city Ulsan.

Credit: Clean Technica
The Tesla Model 3 and Hyundai Kona EV have over 50% of the South Korean market.

[Read: Proposition 22: Uber and Lyft’s last ditch attempt to keep their business model alive]

The Kia Niro, Chevy Bolt, and BMW 530e (plug-in hybrid) also proved popular in the country selling 2,315, 1,357, and 1,168 units respectively.

All other electric or plug-in vehicles on offer in the country amounted to 5,206 unit sales.

With that in mind, if all those other vehicles were split out to their separate models, the graph above would show much clearer that the Tesla Model 3 and Hyundai Kona EV dominate the South Korean EV market. Together the Kona and Model 3 hold 54% of the South Korean EV market.

According to Clean Technica, the EV market in South Korea is inline with global averages and represents around 2% of car sales.

What this trend highlights is the demand for affordable, high-range EVs, and that it’s desired all over the world, not just in Europe and the US.

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