Tesla sold only one car in Korea in January

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-07/tesla-sold-only-one-car-in-korea-in-january-as-ev-demand-weakens

by jmsflknr • 2 years ago

34 51 2 years ago

option• 2 years ago

Do they have supercharger network there? If not then KIA EV6 and Hyundai Ioniq are better than model 3 and Y and I'd imagine there are some sort of domestic incentives involved

summerlight• 2 years ago

https://www.tesla.com/en_US/findus/list/superchargers/South%...

Yes, they have but the coverage is not as great as the US outside the capital metro.

throwaway59592• 2 years ago

Not sure why you’re being downvoted. Having ridden in all four I agree, the finish on the Kia and Hyundai cars are miles ahead (hehe) of the Teslas. And they’re likely built in South Korea instead of China, which is great for their industry and frankly national security.

samstave• 2 years ago

If you watch the docuseries on netflix, the youngest head designer of GM (think Jony Ive for cars) complained that many Detroit Eng's were lured away to KIA - and thats why Kia went from wackenhut style DUMG tunnel vehicles to how great they look today...

Kis stole (out paid) GMs offerings - as they wanted an appeal to younger market (recall the chipmunk/hamster commercials, etc)...

Kia has a lot of american designers. And younger designers grew up on video games and such, that they want to make good looking cars.

Have you seen any cars (mass market, not luxury boxes) from the 70s 80s 90s... hideous POS's - BUT they did have several advantages, less plastic and no remote power off by The Man.

EDIT to @throwaway5959 - Im in agreement. I think the Kias look fn dope.

not2b• 2 years ago

If their sales are very low, it would make no financial sense for Tesla to build out a supercharger network, at least not all over the country, and people would have trouble getting service for what would be an obscure foreign car in the local market. So I'm sure that Korean customers would prefer to buy a KIA or Hyundai, even without considering factors like loyalty to domestic producers.

seanmcdirmid6• 2 years ago

Does Korea have a EV charging standard? If not, the super charger network would be even more important than in Europe/China.

judge20202• 2 years ago

Korea standardized on CCS1 (US plugs). Not sure what's happening now with the US ditching CCS1 but it might stay CCS1 over there.

ado__dev• 2 years ago

Korean EV's are comparable if not better than Tesla, so not too surprising.

Seems like less of gamble to get a Kia or Hyundai EV when you consider long term support.

LUmBULtERA3• 2 years ago

I don't know, there are reports (e.g., 0/) of people being quoted obscene amounts (60k CAD?) for Ioniq 5 battery replacements not under warranty. I've seen costs ranging from 15-20k for Tesla battery replacements. There are definitely mixed reviews of Tesla support, but I'd be pretty concerned (if not more so) with support from both Kia and Hyundai as well.

0/ https://www.ioniqforum.com/threads/60k-to-replace-main-batte...

judge20202• 2 years ago

Battery replacements after the initial warranty period are often uneconomical in the same way engine replacements are uneconomical after the initial warranty period. And in both cases, there are historical accounts of the components lasting well beyond their expected lifetime as well as dying fairly quickly after the warranty runs out.

xattt2• 2 years ago

Tangential, but I recently realized these car-based forums (Ioniq forum, Kia forums, Ford forums, etc) aren’t run by enthusiasts but rather a single entity, Fora (1).

This is not to say that all communities are synthetic. VWwatercooled as an example has been around forever.

(1) https://fora.com/about/

tempestn• 2 years ago

I'm not sure why you're being downvoted. Multiple customers corroborated the extremely high quotes for Hyundai battery replacements: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEXieo06ta8

seanmcdirmid6• 2 years ago

Koreans tend to like their own cars. Hyundai/Kia make up vast majority of car sales in Korea, so it isn't weird that the EV transition remains the same. It isn't a big enough market to go all in on like China; and you can argue that China's EVs are pretty good as well.

alephnerd2• 2 years ago

Koreans tend to like their own cars

You end up paying a 15-20% tax on a foreign car versus domestic in Korea, and domestic cars have a tax rebate in Korea.

This is why a foreign mid-model car like Tesla or Lexus or Mercedes is a status symbol there.

rootusrootus• 2 years ago

If they normally sell more than a thousand a month in South Korea, then 'only one car in January' sounds like a supply constraint. As I recall, they had a slow month in Australia for that reason.

tempsy• 2 years ago

There's no supply constraints for Tesla right now.

The article doesn't say anything about supply being the issue.

bryanlarsen4• 2 years ago

The supply constraint is shipping, not production.

brandonagr23• 2 years ago

In most months yes, in January no, they sold 0 cars January last year also, the government publishes incentives in Feb for the year, so everyone waits for that before buying

soco• 2 years ago

Or maybe the article meant North Korea? Then it would be surprising news for completely different reasons. But the Bloomberg title doesn't really match, does it.

zepton• 2 years ago

No paywall: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/tesla-sold-only-one-car-in-korea...

bryanlarsen4• 2 years ago

Anywhere Tesla's are imported via container ship have months with ~0 sales because no ship arrived that month and thousands on other months when they do.

sgt• 2 years ago

Sounds like you are confusing imports with sales. If you import 1000 Tesla's, they surely won't all sell at the same time? I'd expect them to be spread out across several months until the next shipment comes in to replenish. It would however make sense if the deliveries are late and the market had been waiting for months.

bryanlarsen4• 2 years ago

It's not a sale until it's delivered. It's an order before then.

stetrain3• 2 years ago

Tesla generally ships cars on a JIT basis and avoids large inventory.

When a ship arrives with imported cars, the majority are likely already spoken for with pending orders and will be delivered within a month.

seanmcdirmid6• 2 years ago

You "order" your Tesla before it arrives in country, Tesla doesn't have dealerships.

kccqzy3• 2 years ago

Not sure if you are being literal with your numbers, but selling 1000 Teslas in a month in Korea has been achieved multiple times. Go look at the stats.

tremarley• 2 years ago

“Carmakers are facing a slowdown in enthusiasm for EVs in South Korea as higher interest rates and inflation prompt consumers to rein in spending, while concerns about battery fires and a dearth of fast chargers are also damping demand.”

I think this is also the concern of buyers worldwide.

brandonagr23• 2 years ago

This is FUD that intentionally leaves out context to create a false narrative. Tesla sold the same no cars last January also, in addition to shipments depending on arrival of container ships and be driven by quarterly timing, the government publishes incentive information for the year in February

You can see the number of sales in the first month of every quarter over the years here:

https://twitter.com/piloly/status/1742807601425870994

kccqzy3• 2 years ago

Tesla sold 1022 vehicles in Korea in December 2023. The slowdown in January is because of uncertainty in government incentives. Nothing interesting behind this metric.

bobchadwick• 2 years ago

Anecdotal, but I was at a Korean school in the States this past weekend and I have never seen a higher concentration of Teslas than I saw in the parking lot. And there were significantly more Teslas than Kia or Hyundais. So at least in this particular parking lot of this particular school, Koreans/Korean-Americans, seemed to really like Teslas.

Tesla sold only one car in Korea in January

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