BMW’s 10 millionth 520d sedan is seen in this undated file photo provided by BMW.
SEOUL, Sept. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — Imported vehicle sales in South Korea fell 2.1 percent last month from a year earlier amid a lack of supplies in some brands, an industry association said Tuesday.
The number of newly registered imported cars came to 23,350 units in August, down from 23,850 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 Mercedes-Benz’s GLC 300 4MATIC SUV, the statement said.
In August, three German brands — Volkswagen Group Korea, BMW Group Korea and Mercedes-Benz Korea — sold a combined 16,971 units, down 1.7 percent from 17,273 the previous year.
German cars accounted for 73 percent of imported cars sold in Asia’s fourth-biggest economy last month, up from the previous year’s 71 percent, KAIDA said.
Three Japanese brands — Honda Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp. and its independent brand, Lexus — sold a total of 1,929 units last month, jumping 33 percent from 1,451 a year earlier.
Imported brands accounted for 18.31 percent of the Korean passenger vehicle market in July, down from 21.86 percent a year ago. Their market share for August has yet to be released, KAIDA said.
(Yonhap)
