North Korea 2010: Pyeonghwa Samchunri leads the ranking

Advertising billboard for the Pyeonghwa Samchunri. Picture by Eric Lafforgue. All Rights reserved.

The North Korean car market is very limited but seems to have enjoyed a mini-boom over the last year as more cars can be seen in the formerly deserted streets of Pyongyang. Pyeonghwa Motors has the exclusive rights to car production, purchase and used car sales in North Korea and is the only company in the country to advertise. More about Pyeonghwa Motors here.

The Pyeonghwa Samchunri is a rebadged Jinbei Haise van (itself based on the 1989 Toyota Hiace), assembled under license from Brilliance China Auto. It should be by far the best-selling vehicle in North Korea, followed by the Pyeonghwa Hwiparam II, a rebadged Brilliance BS4, and the Pyeonghwa Premio CUV, a rebadged Huanghai Shuguan (with a Hyundai Santa Fe front and an old gen Kia Sorento back!).

As far as imports are concerned, the best-sellers seem to logically be two popular models from neighbouring countries: the BYD F3, #1 in China, and the Lada Priora, #2 in Russia.

More pictures, street scenes and videos below.

Pyeonghwa Hwiparam II

Pyeonghwa Samchunri

Huanghai Shuguan, sold as Pyeonghwa Premio in North Korea

Pyeonghwa Hwiparam advertising. The model, a rebadged 1996 Fiat Siena, was produced in North Korea from 2002 to 2004.

Here are a couple of very instructive YouTube videos of the streets of Pyongyang that help understand the structure of the North Korean car market:

Pyongyang streets video 1

Pyongyang streets video 2

Pyongyang streets video 3

NOTE this article is 100% speculation based on the observation of 2010 YouTube videos of the streets of Pyongyang as there is no official car sales data from North Korea.

Street Scenes in Pyongyang, North Korea 2010.

Photos: Pyeonghwa, Flickr, Wikipedia, www.che168.com, www.youtube.com