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Foreign car sales in S.Korea fall 33.4 pct in January

Xinhua, February 4, 2016 Adjust font size:

Foreign luxury car sales in South Korea posted a double-digit decline in the first month of this year, ending an upward trend in 2015, industry data showed Thursday.

Sales of imported vehicles reached 16,234 units in January, down 33.4 percent from the record monthly high of 24,366 units in December, according to the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association (KAIDA).

From a year earlier, the January figure was down 18.5 percent.

The decline was attributable to weak demand for models of Volkswagen, which was struggling with an emissions cheating scandal.

Volkswagen's car sales in South Korea tumbled 37.0 percent in January on a monthly basis, with sales of its luxury brand Audi plunging 34.2 percent.

Mercedes-Benz was the most popular model here in January with sales of 4,298 units, trailed by BMW with 2,410 vehicles, Audi with 1,900 units and Volkswagen with 1,660 units.

European cars made up 79.4 percent of total sales last month, followed by Japanese modes with a market share of 11.8 percent and U.S. cars with 8.8 percent.

The best-selling car was Volkswagen's Tiguan 2.0 TDI Bluemotion with 631 units sold in the local market. It was followed by Mercedes-Benz's GLC 220d with sales of 619 units and Mercedes-Benz's S 350d with 578 units. Enditem