Korea's imported car market is continuing to grow, led by electric vehicles. German brands that traditionally were strong in the internal combustion market such as gasoline and diesel are also seeing the share of electric vehicles rise in their recent domestic sales.
According to the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association (KAIDA) on the 11th, electric vehicles accounted for 49.8% (15,428 units) of new registrations of imported passenger cars last month. That was up 20.4 percentage points from the same period a year earlier.
It was found that not only electric vehicle makers such as Tesla, Polestar and BYD but also other full-line automakers saw rising EV sales. In particular, German brands such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz, whose EV sales had declined for a time, showed renewed growth in electric vehicle sales.
BMW, which began selling EVs in Korea in 2014 with the launch of the i3, an electric compact sedan, recorded an EV sales share of 10.6% (8,225 units) in 2023, but that fell to 7.5% (5,821 units) last year. However, in the first half of this year, EVs rebounded to 10.1% (3,964 units) of total sales.
Mercedes-Benz, which has sold EVs in the domestic market since 2019, saw its EV sales share rise to 12% (9,184 units) in 2023, but it dropped to 3.1% (2,118 units) last year. In the first half of this year, Mercedes-Benz's EV sales reached 1,933 units, and their share of total sales returned to an uptrend at 6.5% year over year.
Audi, cited along with BMW and Mercedes-Benz as one of the "three major German luxury brands," began selling EVs in 2020 with the e-tron 55 quattro, and last year EVs accounted for 40.2% (4,427 units) of its sales. In the first half of this year, the figure was 18% (1,324 units).
The imported car industry analyzes that as EV makers such as Tesla and BYD expand their market share and consumer interest in EVs grows, traditional import brands are also seeing EV sales rise again. In fact, since Tesla entered Korea in 2017, domestic sales of imported EVs have posted an average annual growth rate of 90% through last year.
The year-over-year sales growth rate of imported EVs peaked at 518% in 2019, when Tesla's Model 3 was released, then eased, but it has been climbing again since China's BYD entered the domestic market last year.
In a survey conducted in March by used-car platform Reborne Car of 437 adult men and women, 69.8% of respondents said they would be willing to purchase an EV when buying a car in the future. In a survey of customers by BMW, more than half reportedly said they were willing to buy an EV.
The imported car industry expects the rise in EV sales by import brands to continue for the time being, helped by new model launches.
In June, BMW launched the New iX3, the first mass-produced model on the Noirer Klasse (BMW's next-generation EV platform), and began deliveries last month. In the second half of this year, it also plans to release the flagship electric sedan, the i7.
Mercedes-Benz last month launched in Korea the All-New Mercedes-Benz Electric GLC, the first all-electric model of the mid-size sport utility vehicle (SUV) GLC, and will begin customer deliveries in the fourth quarter.
An imported car industry official said, "As Tesla, which is pushing full self-driving (FSD), and Chinese EV brands continue to enter the domestic market, consumer interest in EVs keeps rising," and added, "German import brands still sell many internal combustion vehicles, but with new EV launches continuing, the share of EV sales will steadily increase going forward."