May 02, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Sales of imported vehicles in Korea jumped 23 percent last month compared with a year earlier on strong demand for German vehicles, industry data showed on March 7.

The number of newly registered foreign vehicles rose to 19,928 in the one month period, from 16,212 last year, the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association said in a statement.

The three best-selling models were the BMW 320d, the Mercedes-Benz GLC 220d 4MATIC and the BMW 520d sedans. Six out of 10 imported vehicles sold in Korea last month were from Germany, the statement said.

In the January-February period, imported car sales reached 41,003 units, up a solid 25 percent from 32,886 a year earlier, with their share in the domestic passenger car market standing at 18.38 percent, higher than 15.05 percent a year ago, a KAIDA spokeswoman said.

As Audi Volkswagen Korea has recently resumed sales of their models, KAIDA expects registrations of imported cars to grow to 256,000 units this year, up 9 percent from 233,088 units sold in 2017. The company was at the center of a scandal over fudged diesel fuel emissions.

In November, the German auto group resumed sales of its R8 sports car after suspending sales of its vehicles in August 2016 and other Audi cars in March 2017.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)