Most Popular Brand
The number of new imported passenger car registrations in July was 21,038, down 1.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association on Aug. 3. The figure was down 21.0 percent from the previous month. The cumulative total from January through July in 2023 reached 151,827 units, down 0.4 percent year on year.
By brand, BMW retained its top spot from June with 5,931 registrations, ahead of Mercedes-Benz (5,394). Audi came in third with 1,504. This is Audi’s return to the top three club after four months in which it lost to Volvo and Lexus due to poor sales in the Korean market.
Volvo sat fourth with 1,409, followed by Volkswagen (1,195), Lexus (1,088), Porsche (953), and Mini (798).
The best-selling model was the BMW 5 Series which logged 1,829 registrations. It was followed by the Mercedes-Benz E-Class (1,238), the Mercedes-Benz S-Class (959), Mercedes-Benz GLC (718), and Volkswagen Tiguan (603).
By fuel, gasoline-powered vehicles were the most popular with 9,068 registrations (42.9 percent). This was followed by 6,692 registrations of hybrids (31.7 percent), 2,311 registrations of diesel cars (10.9 percent), 2,077 registrations of electric cars (9.8 percent), and 990 registrations of plug-in hybrids (4.7 percent).
By purchase type, 59.8 percent of the newly registered imported passenger cars were purchased by individuals and 40.2 percent by companies. By country, 18,106 units (85.7 percent) were from Europe, 1,741 units (8.2 percent) Japan, and 1,291 units (6.1 percent) the United States.