Tesla fuels 55% surge in Korea’s online car sales, lifting e-commerce

South Korea’s online car sales jumped more than 50% year-over-year in July, thanks to the arrival of new electric car models from foreign brands, mainly Tesla Inc., in the country.

According to data from Statistics Korea on Monday, the country’s total online transaction value in July stood at 23.03 trillion won ($16.5 billion), up 7.3% from the same month last year.

This marked the fastest gain since June last year with a 9.2% on-year increase.

The country’s gross online spending has stagnated since the internet shopping debacle caused by the collapse of the country’s popular e-commerce platforms, TMON Inc. and WeMakePrice Co., last summer.

The total online transaction value added a mere 1.6% in January, 3.7% in February, 2.5% in March, 2.8% in April, 0.6% in May and 1.9% in June.

“Online shopping spending is on a gradual recovery from last July’s TMON-WeMakePrice fiasco,” said an official from the statistics office. “The recovery pace is steep, partly due to a low base effect.”

TESLA LEADS THE PACK

The rebound is largely propelled by the launch of new foreign EVs, in particular those from Tesla, in Korea.

As Tesla started taking orders for its 2025 Model S and Model X vehicles in June, Korea’s online car purchases surged 55% on-year to 730 billion won in July.

This marked the largest increase since October 2023, when online spending on cars skyrocketed 73.2%.

“Tesla’s new model launches seem to have lifted the overall gross online shopping,” said an official from Statistics Korea.

Online orders have been the dominant channel for Tesla in South Korea since the company introduced internet sales in 2017.

Korean consumers’ online spending on food and groceries also grew 12.6% over the same year, and dining services increased 11%.

Online shopping for agricultural products, including meat and fish, and culture and leisure services also gained 16.8% and 14.1%, respectively.

But Korean consumers refrained from online shopping for semi-durable goods, such as clothes and fashion accessories.

Spending on bags, footwear and furniture dropped 13.8%, 3.4% and 1.0% over the same period.

Meanwhile, total mobile transaction value advanced 10% to 18.16 trillion won over the cited period, mainly driven by food and grocery spending (20.7%), dining services (10.9%) and home appliances and electronics (19.2%).

Mobile transactions accounted for 78.8% of the country’s gross online spending, up 1.9 percentage points from the sale period of last year.

Write to Kwang-Sik Lee at bumeran@hankyung.com
Sookyung Seo edited this article.