[Anchor]

The once-stagnant electric vehicle market is showing rare signs of vitality. With sales increasing in the wake of high oil prices, the release of new vehicles also appears to be gaining momentum. However, Chinese electric vehicles, armed with formidable price-to-performance ratios, are making aggressive inroads.

Reporter Park Jaehyeon has the story.

[Reporter]

A massive silhouette appears on stage.

This is the GV90, Hyundai Motor's Genesis brand's first ultra-large SUV.

It was released exclusively as a pure electric vehicle, without internal combustion engine or hybrid models.

New technologies have been applied, including coach doors that open facing each other—a first for a domestic manufacturer—and an ignition system that activates simply by opening the door.

[Chung Euisun / Executive Chair, Hyundai Motor Group: We have packed AI technology, software, connectivity, and the highest level of safety into a single flagship SUV.]

Recently, Hyundai Motor Group has been expanding its EV lineup by successively introducing electric cargo vehicles such as the Staria Electric and PV5, as well as compact EVs like the Ioniq 3 and EV2.

This is because the EV market, which had been sluggish for a while due to a demand stagnation phenomenon known as the "chasm" ahead of mass commercialization, is recently reviving.

In the first half of this year, European EV sales reached approximately 1,228,900 units, a 40% increase compared to the same period last year.

In South Korea, sales surged 112% over the same period, with cumulative registrations surpassing 1 million units for the first time.

[Kim Pil-soo / Professor, Future Automotive Department, Daelim University: As the burden of oil prices grew due to super-high oil prices, interest in electric vehicles increased, and diversity in vehicle types expanded from cost-effective EVs to premium models.]

However, as the market grows, the craze for Chinese electric vehicles driven by high cost-effectiveness is fierce.

In South Korea, where tariff barriers are low, the competitiveness of Chinese cars is inevitably even higher.

The domestic starting sales price of the ES90, a top-tier electric vehicle produced in China by Volvo, an affiliate of China's Geely Automobile, is about 73 million won.

Due to lower tariffs than in Europe, it is more than 50 million won cheaper than the selling price in Sweden, where Volvo's headquarters is located.

Consequently, sales of Chinese electric vehicles skyrocketed by 334% in the first half of this year.

With government trade and industrial policies heavily influencing the EV market, concerns are rising that failing to respond in a timely manner could lead to losing market dominance.

(Video reporting: Choi Ho-jun, Video editing: Lee Sang-min, Design: Kang Yun-jung, Footage courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group & Volvo Cars)