Q1 Sales Drop 18.6% YoY
The Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association announced on April 11 that Toyota, Lexus and Honda sold 3,323 cars in South Korea in the first quarter of this year, down 18.6 percent from a year earlier.
The sales volume of Lexus fell from 1,980 to 1,541 and those of Toyota and Honda fell from 1,358 to 1,109 and from 745 to 673, respectively.
Their sales volume in South Korea began to decrease in July 2019, when the Japanese government initiated trade retaliation and South Koreans responded by boycotting Japanese products. More recently, the Japanese automakers are losing their popularity in the market due to the lack of electric vehicles. The boycott is still ongoing and global automotive chip shortages are adding to their difficulties.
“These days, the ratio of electric vehicles is increasing fast in the South Korean market and the Japanese automakers’ main products are gasoline and hybrid cars, not electric,” said an industry source.