This file photo taken Oct. 13, 2020, and provided by Mercedes-Benz Korea shows the upgraded E-Class sedan.
SEOUL, July 5 (Korea Bizwire) — Sales of imported vehicles in South Korea fell 13 percent last month from a year earlier as a chip shortage continued to affect vehicle production, an industry association said Tuesday.
The number of newly registered foreign vehicles stood at 22,695 units last month, down from 26,191 units a year ago, the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association (KAIDA) said in a statement.
The three bestselling models last month were Mercedes-Benz’s E 350 4MATIC sedan, BMW’s X3 SUV and Volkswagen’s Jetta 1.4 TSI compact, it said.
In June, three German brands — Volkswagen Group Korea, BMW Group Korea and Mercedes-Benz Korea — sold a combined 15,965 units, down 10 percent from 17,812 the previous year.
German cars accounted for 70 percent of imported vehicles sold in Asia’s fourth-biggest economy last month, KAIDA said.
Three Japanese brands — Honda Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp. and its independent brand, Lexus — sold a total of 1,829 units last month, down 12 percent from 2,070 a year earlier.
Imported brands accounted for 19.12 percent of the Korean passenger vehicle market in May, up from 18.65 percent a year ago. Their market share for June has yet to be released, KAIDA said.
From January to June, imported car registrations declined 11 percent to 131,009 autos from 147,757 units during the same period of last year, it said.
(Yonhap)
