Benz’s imported auto market share reach 41%

German auto giant Mercedes-Benz sold 6,848 cars domestically last month, marking a 59.3 percent on-year spike, the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association said on Monday.

Mercedes-Benz Korea’s market share among the imported cars has also reached 41 percent last month, up more than 14 percent from the same month last year.

Mercedes-Benz Korea has been showing phenomenal growth in the domestic import cars market in recent years, selling more than 2 million units for the first time last year, an increase of more than 11 percent compared to 2015. The automaker has now been raking in 47 months of consecutive increased sales and has been achieving a double digit growth every year since 2013. 

Last November, Mercedes-Benz surpassed 50,000 annual unit sales, a first for a nondomestic car in Korea.

Aside from the Mercedes’ continued domestic growth, sales of imported vehicles in Korea went up 2.7 in January, with the number of newly registered imported cars listed at 16,674.

The non-domestic car market is still reeling from Volkswagen’s emissions debacle, leading the local government to revoke sales licenses for more than 80 models from Audi Volkswagen Korea.

According to KAIDA’s data, not a single Volkswagen car was sold last month, while only 474 Audi units were sold marking zero increase from a year ago. The combined figures means a 75.1 percent plunge for the local importer and distributor.

Luxury automaker BMW saw its local sales for January increase by 14.48 percent, while Ford and Toyota were up 6.14 percent and 5.37 percent, respectively.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)