This file photo provided by Volkswagen Korea shows the all-electric ID.4 SUV.
SEOUL, Oct. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — Sales of imported vehicles in South Korea rose 17 percent last month from a year earlier despite the extended chip shortage, an industry association said Thursday.
The number of newly registered foreign vehicles stood at 23,928 units last month, up from 20,406 units a year ago, the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association (KAIDA) said in a statement.
The three bestselling models last month were the BMW 520 sedan, Mercedes-Benz’s E 250 sedan and Volkswagen’s ID.4 all-electric SUV, the statement said.
In September, three German brands — Volkswagen Group Korea, BMW Group Korea and Mercedes-Benz Korea — sold a combined 16,501 units, up 21 percent from 13,646 the previous year.
German cars accounted for nearly 70 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 1,805 units last month, up 13 percent from 1,593 a year earlier.
Imported brands accounted for 21.86 percent of the Korean passenger vehicle market in August, up from 20 percent a year ago. Their market share for September has yet to be released, KAIDA said.
From January to September, imported car registrations fell 6.7 percent to 200,210 autos from 214,668 units during the same period of last year, it said.
(Yonhap)
