South Korea's imported car sales drop 2.4% in May amid chip shortage

Gasgoo.com reported on June 7 that South Korea's imported car sales fell 2.4% year-on-year to 23,512 vehicles in May, as chip shortages continued to affect auto production, the Korea Automobile Importers' Association (KAIDA) said on June 7.From January to May this year, South Korea's imported car registrations fell to 108,314 units from 121,566 units in the same period last year, down 11 percent year-on-year.

In May, South Korea’s registrations for cars imported from Europe accounted for 86.2%, followed by the United States (9%) and Japan (4.8%).The three best-selling imported models in South Korea that month were all from German automakers, namely the Mercedes-Benz E 350 4MATIC sedan, the Mercedes-Benz E 250 sedan and the BMW 520 sedan.

Image credit: Mercedes Benz

According to the Korea Automobile Importers Association, sales of German imported cars in South Korea accounted for 75% of the total imported car sales in South Korea last month.Volkswagen Korea, BMW Korea and Mercedes-Benz Korea combined sold 17,539 vehicles, up 7.1 percent from 16,381 a year earlier.

Among them, Mercedes-Benz Korea sold 7,388 units, topping the list for four consecutive months; BMW Korea followed with 6,402 units; followed by Audi with 1,865 units, far behind in the top two.

But Honda, Toyota and its independent brand Lexus continued to see their combined sales decline last month, dropping 44% to 1,136 from 2,035 a year earlier.

The Korea Automobile Importers' Association said the share of imported vehicles in South Korea's passenger car market in May had not yet been released.But in April, imported vehicles accounted for 20.46 percent of South Korea's passenger car market, up from 19.11 percent a year earlier.