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South Korea Car Market - Redo
The South Korean car market includes both new and used vehicles sold in a given year. A calculation of its size in USD involves the estimation of the average price for new and used cars in South Korea, as ready-made data is not available freely. The number of units sold times the average price gives the total market value of the car market in South Korea. The sections below explain how each value was calculated or obtained. The attached document includes all this data.
Total number of new passenger vehicle transactions in the country
In 2016, the number of new light vehicle sales in South Korea was 1,813,851 units; according to IHS Markit. That represented a drop of 0.4% compared to 2015. The market leaders in 2016 were Hyundai and KIA, who captured over half the market with respectively 658,642 and 535, 000 new light vehicles sold in 2016 in South Korea. The exact percentage is 658642+535000/1813851=65.81%.
Average price for new vehicle transactions
All these cars sold roughly the same number of units in the first ten months of 2016, with respectively 78,253; 78,115; 69,039; 67,060 and 64,423. Given the lack of information or data freely available on the average price of a new car in South Korea, the price of an average new car can be estimated from the average price of these five most popular models in the country.
The average price for these top selling five models is (13.84+14.3+22.04+27.14+10.15)/5=17.495
This means that using an average of the prices of the top 5 new top-selling cars in South Korea, the estimate of the price of an average new car is around ₩ 17.494 million.
When using an online currency converter to transfer South Korean WON into USD, this amounts to 16,437 USD.
Total number of used passenger vehicle transactions
The South Korean news agency Yonhap News reported that 3.78 million used cars were traded in South Korea in 2016, according to data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. This represented a rise compared to 2015 with 3.66 million cars traded that year.
Average price for used vehicle transactions (cars and light trucks)
Given the lack of data concerning the average price of a used vehicle in South Korea, an estimate has to be constructed using various sources. The first one is from Statista with a forecast of $5.68 Billion used car sales in 2016. Given that the number of units sold was 3.78 million in that year, the average price can be calculated by dividing the total sales by the number of units sold. First, billions need to be converted into millions so 5.68 billion = 5,680 million. This gives 5,680/3.78=1503. Using Statista's forecast figures for 2016 and the official number of used cars sold in the same year, the estimate of the average price of a used car in South Korea is $1503.
The other source used is a living abroad blog that estimates the cost of living in South Korea. Its estimation of a used car in South Korea is between $1200 and $3500. The average of these two prices gives 1200+3500/2=2350. Given that the average price derived from Statista is $1503 and the average price from the blog is around $2350, the final average can be calculated using the two sources to find an estimate of 1503+2350/2 = 1926. Given the data and information available, the best estimate for the price of an average used car in South Korea is $1926.
Total market size for new and used passenger vehicles
The total market size for new and used cars in South Korea can be calculated by multiplying the number of new cars sold with the average price and adding this number to the number of used cars sold times their average price, for 2016 in South Korea.
This gives (1,813,851*16,437)+(3,660,000*1926) = 29 814 268 887 + 7 049 160 000 = 36 863 428 887 USD.
Therefore, the total market size for used and new cars in South Korea in 2016 was estimated at 36,863,428,887 USD or 36.86 billion USD.
Conclusion
The total market size of the used and new car market in South Korea in 2016 has been estimated at 36.86 billion USD.
The information about the passenger vehicle market in South Korea has been included in the attached spreadsheet.