Sales of imported vehicles in South Korea increased by 10% to 17,547 units in August from 15,932 units a year earlier, according to data released by Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association.
This brings the cumulative total for the January-August period to 153,327 units, 3.3% higher compared with 148,411 sales in the same period of last year.
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Diesel vehicles accounted for 75,541 units of these, down from 92,626 units in the year earlier period – in line with government efforts to reduce annual sales of diesel vehicles by 30% in the next five years.
Despite this, diesel models such as the BMW 520d and Mercedes-Benz E220d, were still among the best-sellers last month.
Sales of petrol cars rose by 35% to 62,978 units in the same period, however.
Mercedes-Benz and BMW accounted for seven of every 10 imported vehicles sold in the country in the first eight months of 2017, according to the association.
But the outlook for Volkswagen and Audi has improved with 12 of the 80 models banned from this market a year ago having just passed the local emissions test.
