Genesis Changes Landscape of Imported Car Market in Korea

Genesis, a domestic premium auto brand in Korea, has risen to prominence. It is running neck and neck with longstanding global automakers. “The rising value of the Genesis brand has changed the imported car market of Korea,” an industry observer says.

Since its launch in 2015, Genesis has quickly established itself in the Korean luxury car market. It has also been recognized by Korean consumers with strong interest in luxury cars. Korea is a major luxury car market that ranks third in global sales of the Bentley and the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, second in global sales of the Maybach S-Class, and third in global sales of the BMW 7-Series.

Genesis is ranked alongside Mercedes-Benz and BMW. According to Consumer Insight’s annual car purchase survey, the premium brands that Korean consumers mulled most over until the last minute were Genesis and Mercedes-Benz (competition rate: 14.7 percent). The survey was conducted from July 2022 to June 2023 among 1,375 new car buyers of premium brands.

Mercedes-Benz has held the top spot in domestic sales for seven consecutive years through 2022. Last year, BMW overtook Mercedes-Benz for the top spot, but Mercedes-Benz and BMW have been in a longstanding rivalry. It is quite significant that Genesis changed the structure of this competition.

In the same study, Genesis formed competition relations with BMW (9.9 percent), Volvo (4.0 percent), and Audi (3.4 percent). BMW and Audi are traditional premium brands that are known as the German Big Three along with Mercedes-Benz. Volvo, a Swedish brand, has been drawing much attention from Korean consumers in recent years. What’s even more impressive is that the Genesis was chosen over the aforementioned competitors. Korean consumers chose Genesis over imported premium brands by ratios of 6-4 to 7-3.

While Genesis has been on a roll, the Korean imported car market has been shrinking. According to the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association (KAIDA), the domestic imported car market fell 7.8 percent to 76,143 units in the first four months of this year compared to 82,594 units in the same period of 2023.

German premium brands such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi also struggled during this period. BMW’s cumulative sales for the first four months of the year were down 5.2 percent year on year (23,970 units) to 22,718 units, while Mercedes-Benz’s sales shrank 17.6 percent year on year from 21,128 units to 17,403 units. Audi’s sales slid by 74.7 percent year on year to just 1,870 units.