4th-largest Imported Car Brand in Korea
The Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association (KAIDA) announced on Oct. 7 that 5,958 Mercedes-Benz cars were newly registered in South Korea last month, followed by BMW (5,275), Audi (2,528), Mini (1,108) and Volkswagen (872). For the first nine months of this year, Mercedes-Benz sold 53,571 cars in South Korea, followed by BMW (41,773), Audi and Volkswagen.
In the meantime, Tesla, which is not a KAIDA member, sold 2,056 and 10,518 cars in the market last month and from January to September, respectively. It was the fourth-largest imported car brand in South Korea last month and for the three quarters alike.
Tesla’s rapid growth in South Korea has been led by the Model 3. More than 9,900 units of the Model 3 have been delivered to South Korean customers this year. Last month’s number is close to 2,000.
Last month, a total of 21,839 imported cars were newly registered in the market to show a year-on-year increase of 8.1 percent. The number for the period of January to September is 191,747, up 15 percent from a year ago. Approximately 80 percent of the cars are European and 67.2 percent of them are German.
For the three quarters, the Japanese car sales volume stood at 14,528, about half compared to the previous year. In September, however, the number of newly registered Japanese cars rose to 1,458, up 32.2 percent from a year earlier. In South Korea, boycotts of Japanese products started in July 2019 and the Japanese car sales volume continued to fall before rebounding in August this year.