April 27, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Korea’s imported vehicle market is expected to grow 9 percent in 2018 compared with this year, a local industry association said on Dec. 12.

In November, Audi Volkswagen Korea resumed sales of its R8 sports car after the German carmaker fully had suspended sales of Volkswagen vehicles since August last year and Audi cars since March this year due to the diesel gate emissions cheating scandal.

The Korea Automobile Importers and Exporters Association forecast registrations of imported vehicles will jump to 256,000 units in the new year from an estimated 235,000 for 2017.

In the January-November period, imported carmakers sold a combined 212,660 autos, up 3.7 percent from 205,162 units in the same period last year, according to KAIDA.   

Sales of gasoline-powered foreign-made vehicles jumped 32 percent to 90,908 units in the first 11 months from a year earlier, while sales of diesel cars fell 17 percent to 100,885, the data said.

By Alex Lee and newswires (alexlee@heraldcorp.com)