Tesla Model Y tops South Korea's July sales charts, one in three imports was a Tesla

EVwire brief: Tesla registered 10,237 vehicles in South Korea in July, its fifth consecutive month above 10,000 and its sixth straight as the country's top-selling import brand. The figure accounted for roughly a third of all imported car registrations.

The Model Y also topped South Korea's overall passenger car sales in July, not just imports. Its combined 8,705 units edged out the Hyundai Grandeur's 8,532 by 173 vehicles. The Model Y Premium was July's top import model at 6,612 units. Long Range versions of the Model Y Premium and Model 3 Premium contributed another 2,092 and 1,239.

Tesla celebrated the milestone on X:

Details:

Total imported car registrations hit 30,976 in July, up 14.3% year-over-year but down 18.6% from June after a special consumption tax reduction expired. Electric vehicles accounted for nearly half of all imports at 49.8%.

Here are South Korea’s import vehicle rankings for July, as per KAIDA data.

Tesla's year-to-date registrations now stand at 66,376, a 149.8% increase over the same period last year and already past the 59,916 it sold across all of 2025.

Context:

Tesla has dominated Korea's import market all year. EVwire covered the H1 numbers last month, when Tesla's 56,139 registrations had nearly matched its entire 2025 total in just six months. July pushed it past that mark.

BYD registered 2,846 vehicles in July, a step back from the 4,000-plus it posted in June. The brand also lost access to Korean EV purchase subsidies starting in July after failing the government's domestic-contribution evaluation. Tesla passed the same screen and kept its eligibility.

Source: Chosun Biz, citing KAIDA data; Tesla Korea on X

DIG DEEPER into the Tesla industry news with our dedicated TESLAWIRE page. And don't forget to subscribe to our EV industry newsletter to join 14,000+ EV geeks.