Imported Car Sales Fall 1.3 pct in July on Lack of Supply

This photo, provided by BMW Korea shows the face-lifted 5 Series model.

SEOUL, Aug. 3 (Korea Bizwire) – Imported vehicle sales in South Korea fell 1.3 percent last month from a year earlier due to the end of tax cuts and lack of supplies in some brands, an industry association said Thursday.

The number of newly registered imported cars came to 21,138 units in July, down from 21,423 units a year ago, the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association (KAIDA) said in a statement.

The three bestselling models last month were BMW’s 520 sedan, Mercedes-Benz’s E 250 sedan and Lexus’ ES300h sedan, the statement said.

In July, three German brands — Volkswagen Group Korea, BMW Group Korea and Mercedes-Benz Korea — sold a combined 14,977 units, up 3.8 percent from 14,426 the previous year.

German cars accounted for 71 percent of imported cars sold in Asia’s fourth-biggest economy last month, up from the previous year’s 67 percent, KAIDA said.

Three Japanese brands — Honda Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp. and its independent brand, Lexus — sold a total of 1,741 units last month, jumping 19 percent from 1,467 a year earlier.

Imported brands accounted for 18.97 percent of the Korean passenger vehicle market in June, slightly up from 18.02 percent a year ago. Their market share for July has yet to be released, KAIDA said.

(Yonhap)