VW scandal hurt imported car sales last year

Sales of imported vehicles dropped significantly last year from 2015, largely due to a sales ban on Audi and Volkswagen cars following an emissions scandal, data showed Thursday.

In 2016, the number of newly registered foreign cars came to 225,279, down 7.6 percent from 243,900 the previous year, according to data from the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association.

“The imported car market shrank from a year earlier in 2016 due to the Volkswagen scandal that led to the revocation of sales certificates for certain vehicle models,” association official Yoon Dae-sung said in a press release.

Audi Volkswagen Korea, the local importer of the German vehicles, has been found to have fabricated emissions and efficiency test results of its vehicles while obtaining sales approval from the local government.

The country’s transportation ministry revoked its sales certificates for some 80 Audi and Volkswagen car models. The local importer of the German cars has yet to win back its sales certificates.

In December, no Volkswagen cars were sold. For the entire 2016, sales of Volkswagen cars plunged 63.2 percent on-year to 13,178, while those of Audi vehicles plunged 48.6 percent to 16,718.

YONHAP