KAIDA NEWS

243,900 Import Cars Newly Registered in 2015

[Jan. 7, 2016] The Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association (KAIDA) announced that the number of newly registered imported cars in December, 2015 was 24,366, up 6.0 percent from November, pushing the annual total for 2015 to 243,900, which represents a 24.2 percent rise from the 196,359 recorded in 2014. 

By brand, BMW had the highest number of new registrations throughout the year with 47,877 units, followed by Mercedes-Benz (46,994 units), Volkswagen (35,778 units), Audi (32,538 units), Ford/Lincoln (10,358 units), Lexus (7,956 units), Toyota (7,825 units) MINI (7,501 units), Land Rover (7,171 units), Peugeot (7,000 units), Chrysler/Jeep (6,257 units), Nissan (5,737 units), Honda (4,511 units), Volvo (4,238 units), Porsche (3,856 units), Infiniti (2,974 units), Jaguar (2,804 units), Cadillac (886 units), Fiat (615 units), Citroen (572 units), Bentley (385 units), Rolls-Royce (63 units) and Lamborghini (4 units).

By engine displacement, cars with engines under 2.0 liters were the most commonly registered with 136,107 units (55.8%), followed by 2.0~3.0 liter cars with 85,451 units (35.0%), 3.0~4.0 liter cars with 15,269 units (6.3%), 4.0 liter or larger cars with 6,606 units (2.7%), and others with 467 units (0.2%). By country of origin, European brands recorded the highest number of new registrations with 197,396 units (80.9%), followed by Japanese brands and U.S. brands with 29,003 (11.9%) and 17,501 (7.2%), respectively. By fuel type, diesel topped the rankings with 167,925 units (68.8%), followed by gasoline with 65,722 (26.9%), hybrid with 9,786 (4.0%) and electricity with 467 (0.2%).

Of the 243,900 newly registered imported cars, 148,589 were registered under the names of individuals, accounting for 60.9% of the total, with the rest, namely 95,311 units (39.1%), registered by corporations. Looking at the regional breakdown of registrations by individual persons, 40,568 units were from Gyeonggi (accounting for 27.3%), 38,611 units from Seoul (26.0%) and 9,578 units from Busan (6.4%). Turning to corporate buyers registrations by region, 35,077 units were from Incheon (36.8%), 16,829 units from Busan (17.7%) and 15,071 units from Gyeongnam (15.8%).

The top registrants in 2015 in terms of models were the Volkswagen Tiguan 2.0 TDI BlueMotion (9,467 units), the Audi A6 35 TDI (7,049 units), and the BMW 520d (6,640 units), in that order.
“A favorable external economic environment, including stable exchange rate, low oil prices and a cut in the rate of Individual Consumption Tax, coupled with brisk sales of compact-to-midsize cars and SUVs, provided a boost to car purchases by individuals, while stronger demand for diesel cars in particular contributed to their year-on-year growth from 2014,” said Dae-sung Yoon, Executive Director of KAIDA.