BMW Korea has reclaimed its position as the leader in the South Korean imported car market for the first time in eight years, surpassing Mercedes-Benz Korea. Sales of eco-friendly cars, including electric and hybrid vehicles, have overtaken gasoline cars.
According to the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association (KAIDA) and Carisyou Data Research Institute, the total sales of imported cars in December last year reached 28,179 units, bringing annual sales to 282,569 units. Last year’s sales showed a 2.6% decrease from the previous year’s 290,340 units.
The top-selling imported car brand was BMW, which sold 77,395 units last year, marking the first time it has topped the list since 2015. Mercedes-Benz was the runner-up with 76,697 units, just 698 units fewer than BMW.
Audi managed to maintain its third place by selling 17,868 units last year, narrowly holding off strong competition from Volvo (17,018 units) and Tesla (16,461 units). Following them were Lexus with 13,561 units, Porsche with 11,355 units, and Volkswagen with 10,247 units.
The most popular imported car model of the year was the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, with sales of 23,640 units. This was followed by the BMW 5 Series with 20,492 units and the Tesla Model Y with 13,885 units. Only three imported car models achieved sales of over 10,000 units. The fourth and fifth spots were taken by the Mercedes-Benz S-Class (9,414 units) and the Audi A6 (7,882 units), respectively.
Sales of imported eco-friendly cars last year included 91,680 hybrid vehicles, 43,033 electric cars, and 1,796 plug-in hybrids, totaling 145,509 units. For the first time on an annual basis, these figures surpassed both diesel (22,354 units) and gasoline (119,632 units) car sales. Eco-friendly cars accounted for 51.4% of all sales, surpassing the halfway mark.
By brand nationality, European brands led with 239,972 units (85.2%), followed by Japanese brands with 23,441 units (8.6%), and American brands with 16,621 units (6.1%). In terms of purchase type, 163,357 units (60.3%) were bought by individuals, while 107,677 units (39.7%) were corporate purchases.