April 25, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Sales of imported vehicles in Korea jumped 24 percent in April compared with a year earlier on strong demand for German cars, industry data showed on May 8.

The number of newly registered foreign vehicles rose to 25,923 last month from 20,051 a year earlier, the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association said in a statement.

The three best-selling models were Audi’s A6 35 TDI sedan, BMW’s 520d sedan and Mercedes-Benz’s E 200 sedan. Six out of 10 imported vehicles sold in Korea last month were made by German carmakers, the statement said.

In the January-April period, imported car sales reached 93,328 units, up 24 percent from 54,966 on-year, with their share in the domestic passenger car market standing at 18.53 percent, higher than 15.26 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 fabricated diesel fuel emission numbers.

Audi VW Korea resumed sales in November last year after suspending normal operations in 2016 and 2017. It currently sells the R8 sports car, the 2.0-liter diesel powered A6 sedan and the 2.0-liter diesel Passat sedan in the Korean market.

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