New EV Models to Be Launched in Korea in 2021
While imported electric vehicle sales have quadrupled in Korea in 2020 from 2019, new electric vehicle models from Korean and foreign car brands are expected to flood the Korean market in 2021.
According to statistics from the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association and the CarIsYou Data Research Institute, 14,729 imported electric cars were sold in the January-November period of this year, up 3.9 times from 3,748 units in the same period of 2019. Compared to the 4,799 units sold for the whole of 2019, sales already tripled in 2020.
Sales of imported electric vehicles are still being led by Tesla. Tesla sold 11,601 units until November, accounting for 78.8 percent of all imported electric vehicle sales. By model, the Model 3 accounted for 10,866 units, the Model X 422 units and the Model S 313 units.
However, some analysts predict that Tesla's dominance in the domestic and foreign electric vehicle markets will wilt as other imported car brands will step up their efforts to ramp up electric vehicle sales in Korea next year.
Audi Volkswagen Korea launched its pure electric vehicle Audi e-Tron in Korea in July 2020 and sold them out. It announced on Dec. 11 that it plans to release eight electric vehicle models over the next three years and increase the proportion of electric vehicle sales to 11 percent of its total sales. The company plans to introduce its Coupe-type electric vehicle model Audi e-Tron Sportback 55 in 2021 and Volkswagen's first pure electric sport utility vehicle (SUV) ID.4 in Korea in 2022.
BMW also announced a plan to build a lineup of five pure electric vehicle models within two years. BMW will launch the iX3, which is produced at its Shenyang plant in China, in Korea in early 2021 and the iX, which is currently under development, by the end of 2021.
Mercedes-Benz expanded its pure electric vehicle EQC lineup by releasing The New EQC 400 4MATIC Premium in 2020. It will also launch its EQA and EQS, which will be produced at an exclusive EV platform, in 2021. The EQA is based on the GLA model, a small SUV, and the EQS is a spin-off of the S-Class, a large sedan.