This file photo offered by BMW Korea shows the German carmaker’s models.
SEOUL, May 4 (Korea Bizwire) — Sales of imported vehicles in South Korea fell 9.4 percent last month from a year earlier due to lack of supplies in some brands and high interest rates, an industry association said Thursday.
The number of newly registered imported vehicles came to 20,910 units last month, down from 23,070 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 350 4MATIC sedan and Lexus’ ES300h sedan, the statement said.
In April, three German brands — Volkswagen Group Korea, BMW Group Korea and Mercedes-Benz Korea — sold a combined 14,306 units, down 17 percent from 17,296 the previous year.
German cars accounted for 75 percent of imported cars sold in Asia’s fourth-biggest economy last month, falling from 75 percent from a year earlier, KAIDA said.
In contrast, three Japanese brands — Honda Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp. and its independent brand, Lexus — sold a total 1,718 units last month, jumping 30 percent from 1,321 a year earlier.
Imported brands accounted for 17 percent of the Korean passenger vehicle market in March, down from 20 percent a year ago. Their market share for April has yet to be released, KAIDA said.
(Yonhap)
