Tesla Sold More Cars in South Korea Last Month Than in Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Italy Combined

Tesla registered 10,400 cars in South Korea in August 2026, leading the country's imported-car market for a seventh consecutive month. The figure is more than Tesla managed in Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Italy put together.

The data comes from the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association (KAIDA), which counts 29,817 imported passenger cars registered in August, up 9.2% year on year. Tesla took 34.9% of that — the only importer above 10,000 units.

Tesla outsold BMW and Mercedes-Benz combined

BMW was second on 6,180 registrations and Mercedes-Benz third on about 4,000. Tesla beat the two of them added together.

The Model Y did not just win the import table. Combined Model Y volume reached 9,638, ahead of the Kia Sorento on 6,397 — making it the best-selling passenger car in South Korea outright, domestic brands included. That is the second month running: the Model Y also topped the whole Korean market in July on 8,705 units, so August adds roughly another thousand cars. Yonhap reports the Model Y Premium trim alone accounted for 7,490 of those, which would make a single trim level the country's best-selling imported model.

The contrast with Europe

Set the Korean number against the August registrations TeslAnt has published for European markets over the past week and the gap is stark.

Those four European markets total 4,949 cars — under half the Korean figure. France is Tesla's strongest European market and still does not close the gap on its own: the Model Y took 4,622 registrations there, though that is a single model rather than the brand.

The comparison flatters Korea slightly, because Korean import figures cover a market where every Tesla is an import by definition while European totals sit inside much larger domestic markets. But the direction is not an artefact. Tesla is growing in Korea while its European position has been eroding — down almost 36% in Italy, down 2,387 cars year on year in Norway, and recovering in Germany only from a July collapse to 367 cars.

Why Korea works

Two things separate the Korean market from Europe's, and neither is about the car.

The first is that Tesla's main European rival is locked out. South Korea replaced its EV subsidy rules on 1 July 2026 with a points system requiring manufacturers to score at least 60 across supply-chain contribution, after-sales service and certification. Ten carmakers qualified, Tesla Korea among them. BYD Korea and Zeekr did not. In Germany that same month BYD outsold Tesla 5,256 to 3,034; in Korea it sells without the subsidy its competitors receive.

The second is that Tesla has priced directly into the rules. Korea's 2026 subsidy price cap is 53 million won, falling to 50 million won in 2027. Tesla cut the Model Y Premium rear-wheel-drive from 52.99 million to 49.99 million won — a three-million-won reduction that puts it under next year's threshold a year early. That trim alone sold 7,490 cars in August.

The subsidy itself is modest: 1.7 million won on the Model Y RWD and 2.1 million on the Long Range AWD and Model Y L. The eligibility is what matters, not the amount.

For a European reader the useful takeaway is not the league table. It is that Tesla's weak August was regional rather than global — the same car, the same month, sold in record volume 8,000 km away, in a market whose subsidy rules happen to exclude the rival taking its European share.