Sales of imported cars in South Korea jumped 20.1 percent in May from a year earlier, driven by strong demand for German vehicles, industry data showed Thursday.
According to the data by the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association, 18,386 foreign vehicles were newly registered in the country last month, compared with the previous year’s 15,314 units.
The May registration figure is also 1 percent higher than the previous month.
The latest figure raised the cumulative sales of imported cars for the January-May period to 95,557 units, a 25 percent hike from the same period in 2014.
Foreign cars had a market share of 15.2 percent of the cars newly sold in South Korea last month. It was up from the 14.1-percent posted a month earlier.
Nearly four out of five imported cars sold here last month were European brands.
European brands accounted for 79.7 percent of foreign car sales in May, with Japanese and American brands taking up 12.1 percent and 8.2 percent each.
In particular, German carmakers dominated the market, with their car sales representing 68.4 percent of the total.
BMW rose to the top by selling 4,649 vehicles last month, with a market share of 25.29 percent. Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen came next by selling 3,530 and 2,522 cars.
The best-selling model was the BMW 320d, with sales of 699 units, followed by the BMW 520d and Volkswagen Golf 1.4 TSI with
633 units and 588 units, the data showed.
Vehicles with diesel engines remained the most popular among foreign brands as their sales account for 65.1 percent of the total registration last month.
Gasoline cars came in second with a 30.9 percent share with hybrid and electric vehicles trailing with 3.9 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively, the data showed. (Yonhap)
