Korea is now seventh biggest buyer of EVs

Genesis GV60 [HYUNDAI MOTOR]

Korea was the world's seventh biggest market for electric vehicles (EVs) in 2021, selling more than 70,000 units through the Sept. 30 third quarter of this year. That was one notch up from last year.

A total of 71,006 units of EVs were sold from January to September, 96 percent more than a year earlier, according to data released by the Korea Automotive Technology Institute (Katech) Monday.

EVs accounted for 5.5 percent of the new cars sold compared to a global average of 5.1 percent.

China was the biggest market for EVs for the third consecutive year, selling 1.7 million units in the first three quarters, 222 percent on-year growth. Of all new cars sold, 9.4 percent were EVs.

The United States came in second with 272,554 units, or 55 percent higher that the year before. In the U.S., EVs only accounted for 2.3 percent of new cars sold .

Germany ranked third and the United Kingdom fourth. More than 10 percent of new cars sold in Germany were EVs. In the U.K, the figure was 8.3 percent.

In Norway, 52.2 percent of the new cars sold were EVs during the period.

"The number of EVs sold and the proportion of them out of new cars sold increased in Korea on the back of the government's subsidy plan for EV purchases and improved awareness of EVs by the public," the institute said.

Hyundai Motor Group remained the world's fifth largest EV seller this year after launching new EV models.

Hyundai Motor launched the Ioniq 5 in April, followed by Kia's EV6 in August and the electric version of Genesis' G80 sedan in July.

Last month, Genesis also launched the GV60 SUV.

Tesla is still No. 1 in the EV market, shipping 625,624 units this year through the third quarter, 20 percent of all EVs sold.

China's SAIC Motor came in second followed by Germany's Volkswagen Group and China's BYD.

After Hyundai came Stellantis and Renault Nissan.

Katech noted that Korean automakers need to have stable supply of auto chips in order to fortify their positions in the global EV market.

"Supplying auto chip at the right time has a direct impact on EV sales," the institute said. "Systemized control of the supply chain and internalizing technology on manufacturing auto chips will decide who will be the winner."

Toyota last year formed a joint venture with Denso to manufacture their own auto chips.

BY JIN EUN-SOO [jin.eunsoo@joongang.co.kr]