EVwire brief: Tesla was South Korea's best-selling imported car brand in the first half of 2026, registering 56,139 vehicles, according to Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association (KAIDA) data reported by The Chosun Daily. In six months, Tesla has nearly matched the 59,916 vehicles it sold in Korea across all of 2025.
The surge helped push Korea's import market to records on both counts: June's 38,059 newly registered imports were an all-time monthly high, up 37% year-over-year, and the first-half total of 184,032 set a new high as well. BMW took second among brands at 39,150, with Mercedes-Benz third at 29,776.
The top-selling import model for the half was the China-built Tesla Model Y, which starts at 49.99 million won (about $32,680) in Korea.
The Model Y dominated Tesla Korea’s sales in June
Tesla has been Korea's best-selling import brand every month since February, a run that included the Model Y topping the country's overall sales charts, domestic brands included.
Our friend Roland Pircher, who tracks Tesla's registrations across markets, puts June at 11,119 units, Tesla's best June ever in South Korea and its third-best month there overall, up 74% year-over-year and 2% over May. The result caps Tesla's best Korean quarter ever, with the Model Y accounting for 83% of the month's sales.
Context:
The vehicles fueling the run come out of Giga Shanghai, whose export volumes have been surging alongside its domestic Chinese sales. The Chosun Daily frames the Korean import boom squarely as a story of Chinese-built EVs at aggressive prices.
BYD is the other half of that story. The Chinese automaker registered 11,675 vehicles in Korea in the first half, nearly double its 6,107 for all of 2025, pushing mid- and low-priced models like the Sealion 7, from 44.5 million won (about $29,000), and the Dolphin, from 24.5 million won (about $16,000).
The second half sets up a divergence, though. BYD lost access to Korea's EV purchase subsidies from July after failing the government's new domestic-contribution evaluation, while Tesla passed the same screen and keeps its subsidy eligibility, an advantage worth up to several million won per vehicle just as the two Chinese-built lineups square off.
Source: The Chosun Daily, citing KAIDA's June import passenger-car registration statistics
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