Friends who may be familiar with the global automotive circle know that although the overall automobile industry is relatively strong in Europe and the United States and regions in the world, China, South Korea and Japan in Northeast Asia are also relatively developed countries in the automobile industry. Especially in Japan and South Korea, most of the car brands are global brands, that is, most of the products are sold to foreign markets, and they have a good market share in overseas markets.
Of course, according to the current situation, in the next few years, domestic new energy vehicle products may also replicate the overseas market road of Korean and Japanese brands, go out of the domestic market, and shine in the global market.
Back to the point, everyone knows that in fact, in many countries, most of the domestic people buy related products, and most of them choose their own national brand products. In a country like South Korea, the situation is even more "extreme", and friends familiar with South Korea know that Koreans are extremely confident, as long as it is something that South Korea can make, whether it is the best or not, Koreans must think that it is the best in South Korea. If you ask which brand of mobile phone in the world is the best, the answer of the vast majority of Koreans must be Samsung, but we all know that Samsung is not the best mobile phone in the world.
For Koreans, the enthusiasm for their own local car brands is also quite high, of course, because South Korea is currently one of the richest economies in Asia, so the number of cars in South Korea is also quite high.
According to Reports from South Korean media, data released on April 13 showed that as of the first quarter of 2022, the cumulative number of domestic car registrations exceeded 25 million, reaching 25.07 million, an increase of 0.7% from the previous quarter compared with the fourth quarter of last year, according to the total population of South Korea's 51.75 million, equivalent to every 2 people owning a car, which is a very high car ownership worldwide.
Of course, what is more interesting is that from the perspective of the origin structure of vehicles, of the more than 25 million cars, the number of new cars produced from Korean brands is 22.069 million, accounting for 88%; the number of imported models is 3.001 million, accounting for 12%, compared with the ownership of Korean local brand models, the sales of imported brands are much less.
As early as 2020, South Korea's local car sales reached 1.9 million units, of which South Korea's five major local brands, Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors, South Korea's General Motors, Renault Samsung, and Ssangyong Motors, sold 1.607 million units, accounting for about 84%. Now, two years later, that percentage has been pushed up again.
Looking back, looking back at the domestic automobile market, the overall situation is completely different, although in the past two years, the sales performance of domestic independent brands has become better and better, and the market share has also increased slightly, but the overall market share is still not as much as joint venture brands and imported brands. According to the data of the Association of Automobile Associations, the domestic retail market share of independent brands in March was 48.2%, and the cumulative market share of January to March was 48%, compared with the trough period of several years ago, the market share of independent brands has improved significantly, but the market share is still not more than half.
Of course, the Chinese people do not buy their own brand models, not entirely because domestic consumers are too admiring of the foreign, there may be some consumers with such a mentality, but for most consumers, it may still be not very assured of the quality and reliability of independent brand models, and choose joint venture brand models. The reason is mainly because the independent brand started relatively late, and there are not too many core technologies in fuel vehicles, and some manufacturers' car-making processes do not dare to compliment before, resulting in many consumers losing confidence in domestic cars.
In the past one or two years, some excellent independent brands are gradually reshaping the market and consumer confidence in domestic cars, and the prices of many domestic models are also selling higher and higher, such as tank 500, Weilai full series, ideal ONE, BYD Han, etc., the price has sold to two or three hundred thousand, but consumers are still very recognized.
In fact, compared with the enthusiasm of Korean consumers for local car brands, the recognition of domestic consumers for independent brands is indeed a little low, which does make many independent brand manufacturers more ashamed. But with the rise of new energy vehicles, we also see another situation, that is, the recognition of domestic new energy vehicles by domestic consumers is completely different from that of fuel vehicles, in addition to Tesla, the domestic new energy vehicle market is basically the world of domestic cars, and joint venture brands and luxury brands are very weak.
In the past 2021, in the field of domestic new energy vehicles, the domestic passenger car share reached 83%, with an absolute advantage, so it is not that domestic consumers do not recognize domestic cars, as long as domestic products are better, consumers are still willing to pay.
Of course, the South Korean market local car brand share is very high, in the world's largest automobile production and sales country - China, the two major Korean brands Hyundai, Kia but has been almost unable to do it, the market share has fallen again and again, now there is almost no real sense of the best-selling model, may be in the future, if there is no big achievement in the field of new energy vehicles, the prospects of Korean brands in the domestic market will be more bleak.