The South Korean automobile industry is today the fifth largest in the world in terms of production volume and the sixth largest in terms of export volume. 50 years ago, its initial operations were merely the assembling of parts imported from Japan and the United States. The Hyundai Kia Automotive Group is today the second largest automaker in Asia, after Toyota. South Korean car marques have grown to compete with top established European brands. Annual domestic output exceeded one million units in 1988. In the 1990s, the industry manufactured numerous in-house models, demonstrating not only its capabilities, and signalling its coming of age thanks to the heavy investment to infrastructure in the country over the decades.
