Sales of imported vehicles up 10 percent in August

Sales of imported vehicles in Korea jumped 10 percent last month compared to a year earlier on robust demand for German and Japanese vehicles, industry data showed Wednesday.

The number of newly registered foreign vehicles rose to 17,547 in August from 15,932 a year earlier, the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association (Kaida) said in a statement.

The three best-selling models were the BMW 520d, Lexus ES300h and Mercedes-Benz E220d 4MATIC sedans, the statement said.

In January to August, imported car sales were up 3.3 percent to 153,327 autos from 148,411 in the same period a year ago, it said.

As the government moves to reduce the number of diesel cars on the streets by 30 percent over the next five years, imported carmakers sold a total of 75,541 diesel cars in the first eight months, down from 92,626 a year earlier, the Kaida data showed.

In contrast, the sale of imported gasoline cars jumped 35 percent to 62,978 from 46,683 during the same period according to the data.

Yonhap