Best Selling Cars Around The Globe: In North Korea, You Can Have Any Car, As Long As It Is A Pyeonghwa

Matt Gasnier
by Matt Gasnier

After Argentina, Brazil and Libya, I am keeping the surprises coming thick and fast, with our next stop in our ‘round the world travel being… wait for it… North Korea! This way, Dear Leader Kim Jong will feel a bit less “ronery, so ronery, so ronery and sadry arone.”)

If you can’t wait for the next update and want to know all about car sales in 154 countries around the planet, simply go here.

Let’s clear the air right from the start: There are no official car sales figures available for North Korea. Didn’t think so did you? This is where my ‘alternative’ methods come in… Little bit trickier than other countries but I managed to find a few long enough and recent YouTube videos of the streets of PyongYang to get a rather clear idea of what cars sell best in North Korea.

I also have to say the task was made simpler by the fact that the same models kept coming back on screen, and to be honest, the streets of Pyongyang are not that crowded so it doesn’t take long for a rough ranking to come up.

Another (rather essential) fact to know is that the only car manufacturer/assembler in North Korea is Pyeonghwa Motors. (Wikipedia says there is a second NK car brand, but I couldn’t find any trace of it anywhere.)

Pyeonghwa has the exclusive rights to car production, to new and used car sales in North Korea and is the only company in the country permitted to advertise.

So that should make the sales ranking pretty straight-forward…

And straight-forward it is.

The best selling car in the country should be by far the Pyeonghwa Samchunri. Never heard of it? I hadn’t either. The Samchunri is a rebadged Chinese Jinbei Haise van, itself based on the 1989 Toyota Hiace. It is assembled in North Korea under license from Brilliance China Auto (which owns the brand Jinbei).

Another rebadged Brilliance, the Pyeonghwa Hwiparam II (aka Brilliance BS4) should follow at #2. If you really want to know, the Hwiparam I was a rebadged 1996 Fiat Albea. Don’t ask…

The third best selling model should be the Pyeonghwa Premio CUV, a rebadged Huanghai Shuguan. Think Hyundai Santa Fe nose, and previous generation Kia Sorento back… some kind of Kiandai Santa Sorento, except it’s called Huanghai Shuguan.

Stop laughing, you in the back!

There do seem to be some imports, which came as a surprise to me thinking probably that as nothing came out of North Korea, nothing came in either. Well the best selling imports should be the BYD F3, #1 in China in 2010, and the Lada Priora, currently #2 in Russia.

So there you have it, the best selling cars in North Korea. Hands up who knew which was the best seller before reading this article? Right. You did learn something today!

Now if you think I’m making all this up and don’t believe a word I say, (Pyeongwhat?) that’s ok. I knew some of you would! That’s why I prepared a few links for your entertainment…

The Wikipedia page about Pyeonghwa Motors is here, and I have selected three YouTube videos of the streets of Pyongyang for you to travel through the city as if you were there:

Pyongyang streets video 1

Pyongyang streets video 2

Pyongyang streets video 3

Matt Gasnier, based in Sydney, Australia, runs a blog named Best Selling Cars, dedicated to counting cars all over the world.

Matt Gasnier
Matt Gasnier

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  • Matt Gasnier Matt Gasnier on Mar 18, 2011

    This is a great link tech98 thanks very much for sharing!

    You will notice the Fiat Palios in your video all have a boot - which makes them a Fiat Albea or Siena (crazy eh?) and it was produced and sold in NK under the Pyeonghwa Hwiparam I name from 2002 to 2006...

  • Invalidattitude Invalidattitude on Apr 25, 2011

    Too bad they don't try to make some "people's car" like the Trabant instead those hardly affordable imported Brilliant BS4U...

  • George How Could the old car have any connection with the new car as performance and wheel size?
  • ToolGuy Spouse drives 3 miles one-way to work 5 days a week. Would love to have a cheap (used) little zippy EV, but also takes the occasional 200 mile one-way trip. 30 miles a week doesn't burn a lot of fuel, so the math doesn't work. ICE for now, and the 'new' (used) ICE gets worse fuel economy than the vehicle it will replace (oh no!). [It will also go on some longer trips and should be a good long-distance cruiser.] Several years from now there will (should) be many (used) EVs which will crush the short-commute-plus-medium-road-trip role (at the right acquisition cost). Spouse can be done with gasoline, I can be done with head gaskets, and why would I possibly consider hybrid or PHEV at that point.
  • FreedMike The test of a good design is whether it still looks good years down the line. And Sacco's stuff - particularly the W124 - still looks clean, elegant, and stylish, like a well tailored business suit.
  • Jeff Corey thank you for another great article and a great tribute to Bruno Sacco.
  • 1995 SC They cost more while not doing anything ICE can't already do
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