Little big heroes

When BMW Korea unveiled the second-generation 1 Series in October, CEO Kim Hyo-joon pinned high hopes on the smallest and cheapest BMW model for further growth of the best-selling foreign car brand here.

Now two months later, local customers are required to wait for at least four months to purchase the car, according to a BMW Korea spokesperson who would not reveal the specific sales figures, citing company policy.

“The 1 Series is favored by younger customers. But it is also true that overall car purchase trend is moving to smaller models due to people’s renewed awareness of smaller cars by premium brands,” said Pyo Sung-hyun, corporate communications manager.

The nation’s import car market saw the best sales this year with new registrations reaching 120,195 as of November, up 23.7 percent from a year ago.

Led by the strong performance of No. 1 player BMW, smaller vehicles with an engine capacity of 2,000 cc or lower made up more than half the total imported cars sold this year. 

The Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association, a business lobby for foreign carmakers here, said in a recent report that compact car sales would be more apparent next year, coupled with the prolonged economic slowdown globally.

Carmakers have already announced new launch plans of their smaller models next year.

Mercedes-Benz Korea, which has long marketed luxury sedans such as S-Class in Korea, plans to introduce A-Class, the 1,800 cc hatchback, in the second half of next year.

It would be the first time for the Korean unit of the German premium carmaker to launch the A-Class, which made its global debut back in 1997.

“We have been recently diversifying our sales portfolio to include coupes and convertibles. The introduction of the A-Class is also part of the efforts,” said Choi Yoon-sun, spokesperson for Mercedes-Benz Korea.

“As the entry barrier into the import car market is lowering, smaller or niche models are increasing. We also see constant growth in volume models.”

Fiat, which is finalizing its plan to reenter the Korean market early next year, will bring its flagship 1,400 cc small car Fiat 500 together with the 2,000 cc Fremont SUV.

The Fiat 500, with its signature cute, unique style is expected to be a breath of fresh air in the nation’s small car market dominated by BMW’s Mini vehicles, 5,331 units of which were sold as of November, up 35.7 percent from a year ago.

Chrysler Korea, which will handle the import and sale of Fiat vehicles here, on Friday named its new Korean chief Pablo Rosso, who used to be in charge of a Fiat-led joint venture project in India. 

Volkswagen, which has become the No. 2 player in the nation’s import car market beating Mercedes-Benz, also plans to launch its small hatchback Polo whose price tag could be in the 20 million won range. 

In the meantime, Korean carmakers seem to struggle in competition with import brands as they have no specific plan to respond to their toughened offensive next year.

“In the mid-sized sedan segment, we have already lost the market to import brands. Armed with price competitiveness, they would step up their offensive in the compact market,” said a Hyundai official, declining to be named.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)