Busan motor show 2022: Highlights from the Korean Geneva
The Kia Ray mobile library is the sibling to the just-as-small Hyundai Casper
From the wild to the whacky of the Korean automotive industry, Busan may be small but it makes its mark
Although you may never have heard of the Busan International Motor Show, it truly is the place to spot the wild and whacky of the automotive industry. From the funky dog-carrying Hyundai Casper to the Kia Ray mobile library, it may be only a small event – with just six major manufacturers in attendance – but it really does provide an interesting look at the Korean car market.
Join us for a walk around the show hall - and see just what we're missing out on in Europe.
-Hyundai Casper-
Hyundai's stand included some models we don’t get in Europe. We absolutely love the Hyundai Casper city car, which shares a lot of its mechanicals with the Hyundai i10 but is a size smaller still. It was presented here as a tiny van for carrying dogs (although perhaps not a St Bernard) but it is normally a four-seater.
It’s cheap, it’s funky and there’s an EV version coming, which would be less onerous for European CO2 fleet averages than the current combo of a 1.0-litre petrol engine and a four-speed (yes, really) torque-converter automatic. Also, check out those delightful steelies. Come on, Hyundai, you know you want to…
-Hyundai Staria-
It has been around for a few years, but the Hyundai Staria still looks like it’s from the future. More basic versions are available, but it was presented here in full executive shuttle spec, complete with folding tables, captain’s chairs and a widescreen display in the back.
You can get it in some European markets and Hyundai UK might consider bringing it over once the electric version arrives. Even in hybrid or diesel form, it would be fantastic competitor for the Volkswagen Multivan.
-Hyundai's hydrogen HGVs-
Manufacturer presence at the Busan motor show was limited to just Hyundai, Kia and Genesis, and, somewhat surprisingly, the BMW Group. Hyundai was obviously the star of the show, offering the first opportunity for the public to poke around the new Ioniq 6. That wasn’t the only vehicle there, though.
For Europeans, it’s easy to forget that Hyundai doesn't just make passenger cars: it makes about every type of motor vehicle imaginable. That includes heavy goods vehicles and buses. At the Busan motor show it was showcasing hydrogen fuel cell versions of one of its buses and lorries.
Hyundai has plans to offer this Xcient rigid truck in Europe. It can travel around 250 miles on a tank and takes about eight to 20 minutes to refuel.
-Rare classics in Korea-
Spend any time on the streets of Seoul or Busan and it’s immediately striking that there are no old cars. Partly that is the result of low-emission zones, but partly it’s because Korea used to have some fierce import tariffs and restrictions, so European and American classics were never imported in period.
Meanwhile, old Korean cars just weren’t very good, so even if they stood the test of time, there’s little nostalgia for them (which makes the Hyundai Pony-inspired N Vision 74 all the more remarkable). These motor show stand cars are actually owned by Kim Joo-yong, who is on a mission to educate Koreans about classic car with his Inje Speedium Classic Car Museum.
-Dpeco Potro-
Would you look at this happy chappy. It wouldn’t be a motor show without some ‘mobility solutions’, although it must be said that there were very few scooters and hoverboards.
Dpeco is a relatively small company that makes various commercial vehicles, from buses to these micro-vans.
The Potro is powered by a 20bhp electric motor and a 15.7kWh battery to give it a top speed of 44mph and a range of about 60 miles.
At a base price of 20,680,000 Won, or about £13,000, it seems rather expensive, but for maintenance in parks and in tight cities, it might be just the tool for the job.
Off-road Motors
Before we visit the Genesis and Kia stands, let’s pay a visit to Off-road Motors. In the big cities at least, South Korea’s roads are pretty smooth, but the Koreans are mad for a lifted off-roader. Jeep Wranglers are, if not exactly common, a fairly regular sight and most of them are modified in some way or another.
A lot of them have lift kits, aftermarket wheels and bodykits. It’s a pretty unusual sight amid a sea of grey Hyundais and Kias. Jeeps are the most common, but the stand also featured a Ssangyong Musso with a matching trailer tent, and a new Ford Bronco.
-Genesis-
Genesis is a newcomer to the European market, but the Genesis brand has been available – and popular – in its home market for a while. Although it didn’t have any debuts at the show, its stand did showcase a couple of models we don’t (yet) get in Europe. The G80 and GV70 Electrified are coming over later, but there are no plans to offer the G90 limousine.
It’s unlikely it could compete for sales with the Mercedes S-Class, BMW 7 Series and Audi A8 in this fairly conservative segment, but we’re a fan of its style. Having been ferried to and from the airport in one, we can attest that it’s pleasingly finished inside and a mostly serene experience, although it doesn’t quite have the whizz-bang gadgets of the latest Germans, and the ride could do with a bit more fine-tuning.
-A Kia Ray of sunshine-
Kia held a big, big press conference about its environmental commitments and brought out head of Kia design Karim Habib to talk about the new Seltos (a sub-Sportage SUV that we won’t be getting) and the 2021 EV9 concept. Frankly, we were more interested in this Kia Ray mobile library. The Ray is the Hyundai Casper’s more sensible Kia sibling.
This one’s an EV, but you can get it with the same 1.0-litre triple and four-speed auto and most of them have sliding rear doors rather than the conventional ones on this car. We’d still have a Casper, but we wouldn’t say no to the Ray, either. Not even for that terrible apostrophe placement.
-Roadstaff restomods-
Roadstaff appears to be Korea’s take on restomods. The modifications on these Porsches were relatively mild, but on the other side of the stand were some garish wide-body Ferraris that Mansory’s design team might think twice about. What’s interesting is that all the Porsches had Tiptronic automatic gearboxes. In general, manual gearboxes are not really a thing in South Korea.
We spotted only one or two manual cars. Given how the cities are utterly gridlocked during the day, we can’t say we blame people for not wanting to heel-toe their way through Busan.
-BMW and Mini-
The BMW Group was the only foreign car manufacturer to have a presence at the Busan motor show, with separate stands for BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce. It held a big press conference for the Korean debut of the new BMW 7 Series and 2 Series Active Tourer and the latest Mini JCW, but didn’t have any international news.
-Not a Hyundai-
It might be odd for the only foreign car maker in attendance to be BMW, but the most common non-Korean brand on Korean roads is easily BMW, and you see a fair few Minis, too. We spotted the odd Mercedes, Audi and Land Rover and Volkswagen as well.
Renaults are sold as Samsungs, we saw the grand total of one Peugeot (a previous-gen 3008, if you were wondering) and Fiat, Opel-Vauxhall and Skoda are entirely absent. Honda and Nissan have a presence, but they’re a fairly rare sight, too.