Over 40,000 Imported Cars Owned by Companies

Korea has more than 40,000 imported cars worth more than 200 million won registered as company vehicles. Among them, nearly 8,000 were to the tune of over 300 million won per car. On the other hand, the number of imported cars under 50 million won has descended.

The nation had 40,483 imported cars worth more than 200 million won and 146,949 imported cars costing over 50 million won at the end of August, according to data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport (MOLIT) and the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

The number of cars imported by businesses has grown year by year; it stood at 7,233 in Korea in 2017, followed by 9,698 in 2018, 12,834 in 2019, 16,568 in 2020, 23,174 in 2021 and 33,263 in 2022. This year, the figure crossed 40,000.

In particular, the number of ultra-expensive imported cars registered with corporate names with prices of over 300 million won reached 7,994 units at the end of August. In the first eight months of this year, the number of company cars exceeding 300 million won soared by a whopping 1,704 units.

Although there were many imported cars with price tags of 50 million won or less, the number of imported cars had steadily increased since 2017, but has decreased for the first time this year. In 2022, the number climbed to 147,348 units, but at the end of August this year the number stood at 146,949 units.

“The problem of imported cars worth hundreds of millions of won being privately used by company owners or their families is a chronic problem that distorts the corporate car system,” a lawmaker said. “In parallel with the implementation of the Yellow Green License Plate System for business cars, the central government and local governments including the Seoul City Government should quickly begin preparing fundamental improvements to the Corporate Car System, which goes against the opinions of ordinary people and allows some individuals to take advantage of the system to pay less automobile taxes.”

MOLIT plans to introduce a system to attach yellow green license plates to corporate cars and leased corporate cars this month to make it easier to identify if a vehicle is privately owned or company owned.