This photo provided by Changwon city government shows Chinese bus manufacturer Higer Bus Co.’s electric bus.
SEOUL, Aug. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — Sales of Chinese electric commercial vehicles such as buses and trucks jumped sharply in the first half of this year in South Korea, a report showed Monday.
The number of Chinese electric commercial vehicles that were sold during the first half of this year in the domestic market stood at 1,351 units, up 749 percent from a year ago, according to a report by the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association (KAMA).
The share of Chinese models in the South Korean electric commercial vehicle market rose to 6.8 percent this year from 1.1 percent last year.
In particular, a total of 436 Chinese electric buses were sold in the first half of this year, grabbing a share of 48.7 percent in the domestic electric bus market.
KAMA attributed the strong performance of Chinese electric commercial vehicles to cheap prices, a variety of models, and subsidies without differentiation.
In the first half of this year, a total of 29 models were released in the domestic market, including nine locally-made ones and twenty imported ones.
In the electric truck market, however, domestically-made vehicles still have an overwhelming share of 95.2 percent.
However, sales of Chinese compact trucks, which are about 10 million won (US$7,620) cheaper than domestically-made ones, jumped to 915 units in the first half of this year, up 8,218 percent year on year.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
