Japanese Auto Market Share Drops to Single Digits amid 20.3% Jump of Import Car Sales in Korea

The Japanese car market share in Korea fell into the single digits in January for the first time. In contrast, German cars, which show an upward trend in market share, achieved their highest-ever monthly results. 

According to the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association (KAIDA) on February 6, Japanese vehicles accounted for 9.8% of the Korean import car market in January, down 1% from last October. They have never posted a single-digit market share before. 

Although Japanese car brands continue to thrive in the global market helped by the weak yen, they are struggling in the local market. 

German automobiles, on the other hand, saw their market share shoot up as much as 74.8% in January, thanks to their huge popularity in the country. The January figure exceeded the prior record of 73.1% from a year ago. 

Yoon Dae-sung, managing director of KAIDA, said, “German car brands were able to report stellar sales figures during the traditionally off-season month of January, because of enough supplies and unprecedented promotion.” Other sources in the industry said foreign cars, especially German-made ones, did well because they provided consumers with the option to buy fuel-efficient diesel-engine vehicles.

The number of import cars sold in January totaled 14,849 units, a 20.3% year-on-year gain, and up 19.7% from the previous month. The gains come after annual foreign car sales topped the 150,000 mark for the first time in 2013. 

Among import car brands, German brands such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen ranked in the top three in cars sold, followed by Audi and Ford. BMW sold 3,408 vehicles overall, with sales of Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen reaching 2,773 and 2,700. Audi sold 2,137 cars while Ford did 757 units. Japanese carmakers such as Toyota and Nissan came in sixth and seventh, respectively.

By model, the BMW 520d (809 units), the Volkswagen Tiguan 2.0 BlueMotion TDI (650 units), and the Mercedes Benz E220 CDI (576 units) were three of the best-selling models.

By engine size, 54.2 percent of all foreign cars sold here had engines smaller than 2,000 cubic centimeters (cc), with those ranging from 2,000 cc to 3,000 cc making up 32.2 percent of the total.

In the meantime, domestic sales of the five local carmakers, including Hyundai Motor, increased also by 1.9 percent from a year ago to 106,343 units.