Rebounding of Imported Car Sales
The Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association announced on November 4 that a total of 20,612 imported cars were registered in South Korea last month, showing a 22.9% increase from a month ago and 18.3% from a year ago.
According to the association, 1,732 BMW 520ds were newly registered in the country last month and it was followed by the Mercedes Benz E300 4Matic (1,555) and the Mercedes Benz E220d (1,412).
Mercedes Benz sold 6,400 cars during the period and recorded a market share of 31.05%. The company’s cumulative sales volume for the first 10 months of this year is 44,994 cars, up 16.6% from a year ago. BMW sold 5,415 cars in October and 37,285 cars from January to October this year. Last month, Lexus sold 1,134 cars, followed by Honda (917), Toyota (899), Mini (887), Ford (875), Land Rover (696), Nissan (623), Chrysler (564) and Audi (475).
Diesel vehicles accounted for 49.5% of the total, down 14 percentage points from a year ago, whereas gasoline vehicles’ ratio went up by 10.9 percentage points to 41.7%. Hybrid and electric vehicles took up 8.6% and 0.2%, respectively.
European cars’ ratio fell 5.2% to 74.2% while Japanese cars’ rose 5.5% to 18.2%. Seven out of the top 10 were Mercedes Benz and BMW models and the other three were Japanese cars. The Lexus ES300h ranked six with a sales volume of 598, followed by the Honda Accord 2.4 (seventh, 561) and the Nissan Altima (10th, 442). Those with an engine displacement of 2,000 cc or less accounted for 62.9% or 12,963 units.