This would maintain an almost
double-digit growth, Xinhua quoted Korea Automobile Importers and
Distributors Association as saying.
The KAIDA held a press conference in
Seoul to mark the 20th anniversary of its establishment, forecasting
this year’s foreign auto sales would reach 235,000.
For the first 10 months of this year,
196,543 units of foreign luxury brands were sold here, posting a market
share of 15.8 percent.
It was a surge from 0.004 percent in
1987, when the government introduced import liberalisation of commercial
vehicles with engine displacement between 1,000 and 2,000 cc.
Demand for foreign car brands kept a sharp upward trend, rising from 156,497 units in 2013 to 196,359 in 2014.
German luxury brands have led the
growing popularity of imported cars. Sales of German brands, including
BMW, Mercedes Benz and Volkswagen, took up for 68.7 percent of the total
imported car sales here in October, up from 54.3 percent in 2003.
The portion of gasoline models to the
total sales plunged from 97.8 percent in 2003 to 27.7 percent in October
this year, indicating a surge in the percentage of imported diesel
cars.
