This file photo taken Dec. 19, 2022, shows the BMW Charging Station at the German carmaker’s driving center in Incheon, 27 kilometers west of Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 6 (Korea Bizwire) — Sales of imported vehicles in South Korea rose 11 percent last month from a year earlier on improved supplies and new models, an industry association said Monday.
The number of newly registered foreign vehicles stood at 21,622 units last month, up from 19,454 units a year ago, the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association (KAIDA) said in a statement.
“Some brands’ vehicle supplies and their launches of new models helped boost sales last month,” KAIDA Vice Chairman Jung Yoon-young said in the statement.
The three bestselling models last month were BMW’s 520 sedan, Lexus’ ES300h sedan and Mercedes-Benz’s E 350 4MATIC sedan, the statement said.
In February, three German brands — Volkswagen Group Korea, BMW Group Korea and Mercedes-Benz Korea — sold a combined 15,740 units, up 6.8 percent from 14,738 the previous year.
German cars accounted for 73 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 2,200 units last month, more than doubling from 1,009 a year earlier.
Imported brands accounted for 15.9 percent of the Korean passenger vehicle market in January, down from 18.1 percent a year ago. Their market share for February has yet to be released, KAIDA said.
(Yonhap)
