Imported car sales fall 17 pct in June on supply shortage

SEOUL, July 3 (Yonhap) -- Imported vehicle sales in South Korea fell 17 percent in June due mainly to a supply shortage, industry data showed Wednesday.

The number of newly registered foreign vehicles stood at 19,386 last month, down from 23,311 a year earlier, the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association (KAIDA) said in a statement.

"Lack of supply in some brands such as Audi, Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz affected the monthly sales result," a KAIDA spokeswoman said.

The three best-selling models were the Mercedes-Benz E 300 sedan, the Mercedes-Benz E 300 4MATIC sedan and the BMW 520 sedan, the statement said.

But the proportion of German vehicles in the imported passenger vehicle market fell to 53 percent last month from 63 percent a year earlier due to the lingering impact of Volkswagen's "diesel gate" emission cheating scandal and dozens of engine fire incidents in BMW cars caused by faulty components.

From January to June, imported car sales dropped 22 percent to 109,314 units from 140,109 in the same period the previous year, it said.

Imported cars accounted for 14.86 percent of all local passenger car sales in the first six months, down from 18.15 percent a year ago, KAIDA said.

kyongae.choi@yna.co.kr
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