Genesis up nearly 20k in sales over Merc through July
Mercedes-Benz has been top lux brand in Korea since 2017
Hyundai’s Genesis luxury brand is back on top at home, taking over from Mercedes-Benz as top-selling luxury brand in South Korea in the first seven months of the year. If that continues, it’ll be the first time for Genesis to take that yearly sales crown in four years.
Yonhap News reports that 60,005 Genesis models were sold in South Korea from January through July. That’s a massive 65 percent increase from the same period the year before, driven largely by sales of the popular GV80 crossover model. Genesis was hoping to hit 24,000 sales of the crossover this year, but is already over 20k and should surpass the initial goal handily.
Mercedes-Benz, on the other hand, sold just 41,583 vehicles, up three percent from the year before.
Genesis launched in Korea in 2015, becoming the country’s top-selling luxury brand in 2016. But the much broader lineup from Mercedes-Benz took back the title from the hometown advantage in 2017 and has held it ever since. The GV80 crossover was a well-needed addition for Genesis, in a world where crossover sales flourish and sedan sales remain stagnant.
To further help boost sales, the G80 midsize sedan is all new as of earlier this year, adding heavily revised styling and bringing a host of new tech and luxury features to the brand’s offerings. For the 2021 model year, and on sale since early July, the full-size G90 sedan has a special Stardust edition that brings adaptive suspension and intelligent lighting to the car (also now on the base trim for 2021) as well as a sparkling pearl paint effect that takes “inspiration from a scene with night sky full of stars hanging above a red carpet event where celebrities are showered with flashing camera lights.” Which sounds pretty impressive to us.
