Hyundai Casper, Tesla boost Korea’s online car sales

South Korea’s online car sales are expected to exceed 5 trillion won ($3.7 billion) and hit a record high this year, driven by rising sales of the Casper, Hyundai Motor Co.'s smallest crossover sport utility vehicle, and Tesla Inc.’s Model series on the internet, industry sources said.The online automobile transaction value soared 42.1% to 3.1 trillion won in the first seven months of 2024 from a year earlier, the government data showed on Sunday.That was the largest increase among those for sales of other products on the internet such as food with 15.4% and travel services with 14.5% during the period, the Statistics Korea said.The country’s car sales on the internet have been growing since Hyundai introduced the Casper 2021. The increases prompted other automakers such as BMW to join the move, while used car online platforms such as K-Car focused on sales on the internet. CASPER, NO. 1 IN ONLINE CAR SALESThe Casper, which Hyundai sells only online, was the best model on the internet in South Korea. The country’s top automaker sold more than 130,000 units of the crossover city car in the three years after its launch.The domestic sales of Hyundai’s smallest car rose 1.4% to 28,784 units in January-August from a year earlier, while the company’s total local sales fell 9.8% during the period.That indicated consumer trust in its quality has been well established, industry sources said. Hyundai scheduled to start delivering the Casper Electric later this month opened offline pop-up studios for the city car in popular districts such as Seongsu, the Brooklyn of Seoul. Tesla, the world’s No. 2 electric vehicle maker, also contributed to the rapid growth in South Korea’s online car sales. Its sales surged by more than six times to 16,461 units last year from only 2430 units in 2019.The US company was the third-largest imported carmaker in South Korea with sales of 22,268 units in the first eight months of the year, following German luxury carmakers BMW and Mercedes-Benz.Other foreign automakers are selling cars online. BMW’s sales on the internet skyrocketed to 16,853 vehicles last year in South Korea from only 500 units in 2020 when the company introduced online car sales there.GM Korea Co., the South Korean unit of US auto giant General Motors Co., started sales on the internet in 2021 and expanded the number of models online to four.Swedish EV maker Polestar and Japanese Honda Motor Co. are selling their cars only online in South Korea.Internet was customers’ favorite choice for used cars. The country’s top second-hand car retailer K Car Co. sold 33,759 units in the first half, up 1.9% from a year earlier.RESISTANCE FROM UNIONIZED WORKERSThe local online car sales are likely to hit a roadblock, given the strong resistance from unionized workers, industry sources said.Hyundai’s labor union had initially opposed online sales of the Casper when the company unveiled the plan to sell the car on the internet in September 2021.The automaker obtained the agreement of the employees’ body on the online sales as the model is manufactured by Gwangju Global Motors Co., a joint venture between Hyundai and a city government in the country.GM Korea does not sell cars manufactured in the country online either.“Automakers such as Hyundai and Kia Corp. need to get over the resistance from unionized sales forces to sell their popular models online,” an industry source in Seoul said. Kia is the country’s No. 2 automaker and Hyundai’s affiliate.By Jung-Eun Shinnewyearis@hankyung.com Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.