Sales of imported vehicles in South Korea continued to rebound in May, by over 21% to 23,470 units from 19,380 units a year earlier, according to data released by the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association (KAIDA).
The rebound was led by the German brands with their combined sales rising by close to 36% to 14,783 units, from 10,888 a year ago, to account for 63% of total imports.
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Mercedes-Benz was the leading import brand last month with sales rising by over 15% to 5,839 units but BMW volume dipped by almost 3% to 5,222 units.
Volkswagen and Audi sold a combined 3,404 vehicles in May compared with almost none a year earlier when they were forced to withdraw from the market following the emissions cover-up scandal.
Other key import brands last month were Toyota/Lexus with 2,477 sales, Land Rover with 1,066 units, Ford with 923 units, Volvo 780 units, Mini 662, Honda with 618 units and Chrysler 602.
In the first five months of 2018, import sales were up by 23.7% to 116,798 units compared with 94,397 last year.
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By GlobalDataEarlier this year, KAIDA said it expects import sales to rise 9% to 256,000 units this year compared with 233,088 in 2017 but this now seems conservative.
See also: South Korean sales down 1.3% in May
