[SMM Analysis] South Korea's NEV Market Recovery Still Shows Mixed Characteristics, ESS Becomes an Important Growth Channel for Battery Enterprises
South Korea's NEV market is recovering from the slump at year-end 2025, but the current rebound is still dominated by HEVs, rather than being driven solely by BEVs. Although BEV share has rebounded, the sustainability of the recovery remains to be confirmed. For South Korean battery enterprises, it has become difficult to gauge demand recovery simply by relying on domestic EV sales and export data. In contrast, driven by South Korea’s policy demand and utility-scale energy storage projects in North America, ESS is becoming a clearer growth channel.