SEOUL, April 7 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s domestic car sales hit a five-year low last year, but the average selling price of new models reached an all-time high, data showed Wednesday.
Last year’s domestic auto sales amounted to 1,735,000 units, down 9 percent from a year ago and equivalent to 90 percent of the average annual sales of the past five years, according to a report from the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association.
The sluggish sales were due to a high base effect of the previous year when domestic car sales hit record high thanks to tax reductions and revenge consumption, plus the delay in delivery of vehicles resulting from the disruption of the global supply network.
In value terms, however, last year’s domestic car sales amounted to 76.6 trillion won (US$62.8 billion), up 1.8 percent from a year ago.
In particular, the average selling price of new models reached 44.2 million won, surpassing the 40 million won mark for the first time in history.
This is attributable to robust sales of high-priced models such as imported cars, SUVs and electric vehicles. In value terms, the size of the nation’s car market grew by 6.7 percent per year during the three years from 2018 to 2021.
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