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.
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By GlobalDataBut 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.
