April Imported Car Sales Up 3.1% YoY... Hybrid Cars Account for Half

Hybrid Ratio 54.4%
Top Selling Cars Are Model 3 and E300

In April of this year, sales of imported passenger cars increased by 3% compared to the same period last year. Hybrid vehicles gained popularity, accounting for half of the sales.

On the 7th, the Korea Imported Automobile Association announced that the number of newly registered imported passenger cars last month was 21,560 units. Although this was a 14.7% decrease from the previous month, it was a 3.1% increase compared to the same month last year. As a result, the total number of imported passenger cars sold up to April this year was 76,143 units, which is 7.8% less than the same period last year.

By fuel type, hybrids accounted for more than half with 11,177 units (51.8%). This was followed by gasoline with 5,536 units (25.7%), electric vehicles with 3,626 units (16.8%), diesel with 656 units (3.0%), and plug-in hybrids with 565 units (2.6%).

By brand, Mercedes-Benz (6,683 units) and BMW (5,750 units) still held the first and second places. Tesla (1,722 units) and Volvo (1,210 units) also exceeded 1,000 units in monthly sales. Other brands were recorded as follows: Lexus 920 units, Toyota 893 units, Audi 770 units, Mini 676 units, Porsche 620 units, Volkswagen 566 units, Ford 350 units, Jeep 281 units, Land Rover 268 units, Lincoln 200 units, Honda 167 units, Peugeot 101 units, Chevrolet 85 units, Polestar 83 units, Lamborghini 60 units, Cadillac 50 units, GMC 36 units, Bentley 24 units, Maserati 23 units, and Rolls-Royce 22 units.

The best-selling vehicle was the Tesla Model 3, with 1,716 units sold last month. This was followed by the Mercedes-Benz E300 4MATIC (1,681 units) and the BMW 520 (979 units). By purchase type, individual purchases accounted for 13,656 units (63.3%), while corporate purchases were 7,904 units (36.7%).

Jung Yoon-young, Vice Chairman of the Korea Imported Automobile Association, explained, "The new registrations of imported passenger cars in April decreased compared to the previous month due to shortages in supply from some brands and a significant drop in registrations of certain brands."