Dominated by German Cars
The Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association announced on May 10 that a total of 20,051 imported cars were newly registered in South Korea last month, up 12.4% from a year ago and down 9.2% from a month ago.
Last month, BMW sold 6,334 cars in the country, up 2.8% from a month earlier and up 56.8% from a year earlier. Its market share rose to 31.59% and it regained the top spot from Mercedes-Benz, which sold 5,758.
Four BMW and two Mercedes-Benz models joined the top 10 last month. The list was topped by E220d (813 units sold) and E220d 4Matic (702 units sold) came in fourth while BMW took the second, fifth, sixth and seventh places with 320d, 118d Urban, 520d and GT ED, respectively.
Still, Mercedes-Benz outperformed BMW for the first four months of this year. During the period, the former and the latter sold 24,877 and 18,115 cars in South Korea, respectively.
Last month, they were followed in terms of sales volume by Lexus (1,030), Toyota (888), Honda (881), Ford and Lincoln (818), Mini (743), Volvo (542), Chrysler and Jeep (526) and Nissan (524). European cars accounted for 74.6% of the monthly sales volume, followed by Japanese (18.1%) and American (7.3%). Diesel cars took up 55.5%, gasoline 35.9% and hybrid 8.6%.
Those with an engine displacement of less than 2,000 cc accounted for 59.8% and the number was 6,705 for 2,000 cc to 2,999 cc, 958 for 3,000 cc to 3,999 cc and 402 for at least 4,000 cc. Individual and corporate customers took up 67.3% and 32.7%, respectively