Benz vs BMW vs Tesla, the battle lines are drawn in the first half of 2024 import car sales

The Korea Association of Imported Motor Vehicles (KAIDA) has released statistics on domestic imported vehicle sales for June and the first half of 2024. New registrations in June were 25,300 units, up 4.51 TP3T from May. Cumulative sales in the first half of the year totalled 125,652 units, down 3.91 TP3T year-on-year.

[Table 1. Sales by model].

Tesla Model Y was the best-selling model in South Korea last month. It continued the momentum of the Model 3 last month, selling 3,404 units, beating the Mercedes-Benz E-Class by almost 900 units. Tesla's Model 3 (1,753 units) is also in third place, while the 5 Series (1,574 units) is BMW's best-selling model in fourth place.

The Mercedes-Benz GLC (725 units), BMW 6 Series (637 units), Volvo XC60 (583 units), BMW X3 (553 units), Lexus ES (516 units) and BMW X5 (481 units) round out the top 10. In the top 10, apart from the departure of the Lexus NX and the arrival of the BMW X5, the overall sales pattern is similar to last month.

[Table 2. Sales by manufacturer].

The top spot by manufacturer was again taken by Mercedes-Benz (6,661 units) this month. In second place is BMW with 6,172 units. In third place is Tesla (5,293), with the Model 3 and Model Y alone accounting for a whopping 971 TP3T of total sales. Volvo (1,452 units), Lexus (1,047 units), Audi (902 units), MINI (746 units) and Toyota (660 units) are unchanged from last month, while Land Rover, up 17.91 TP3T, enters in ninth place with 414 units. In 10th place is Volkswagen with 400 units.

[Table 3. Sales in the first half of the year].

The last statistic is the cumulative sales for the first half of the year by manufacturer. In first place is BMW (35,130 units), which started to pull away from its rivals at the beginning of the year. In second place is Mercedes-Benz, which has been making a frightening comeback lately (31,011 units), while Tesla (17,380 units) and Volvo (7,185 units) round out the top five. Audi, which once shared the title of 'German Big Three', has dropped down the rankings noticeably.

Among the top 10 brands, the manufacturer with the highest growth compared to the first half of last year is Toyota (4,535 units), up 14.01 TP3T. A range of new models, including the Alfd, Prius and Crown, are doing well. Conversely, the biggest loser is Audi (-62.61 TP3T). It hasn't released any new cars recently, only partial or facelifted models, which has made it a bit less fresh. In addition, all manufacturers except Toyota and Tesla sold fewer cars than in the same period in 2023 (*Tesla sales in 2023 are from Kaisu data).

The top selling model in the first half of the year was the 5 Series (11,156 units). It narrowly edged out the second-placed Model Y (14,001). The E-Class (8,907 units) was followed by the Model 3 (7,026 units), ES (3,476 units), GLC (3,348 units), X5 (2,968 units), X3 (2,855 units), XC60 (2,831 units) and C-Class (2,757 units) in the top 10.

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Photo by each manufacturer