Imported luxury car sales go slow

By Park Jae-hyuk

The sales of imported vehicles costing over 100 million won ($85,000) fell 13.9 percent last year from a year earlier due to a government regulation on cars owned by corporations, data from the Korea Automobile Importers And Distributors Association (KAIDA) showed Sunday.

A total 19,660 imported vehicles costing over 100 million won were sold last year, compared to 22,844 in 2015. A total 7,422 import cars costing over 150 million won last year were sold, an 18 percent decline year-on-year.

It was the first decline in sales since 2008, as the sales of imported cars costing over 100 million had continued to grow for eight years in Korea’s car market.

Observers said the sales of imported luxury cars have begun to fall, after the government’s decision early last year to impose heavier taxes on corporate-owned vehicles to prevent personal use of such cars.

According to KAIDA, the portion of corporate-owned cars among imported vehicles was 35.7 percent last year, a 5 percent fall year-on-year. The figure was 40 percent on average from 2012 to 2015.

The portions of corporate-owned Mercedes-Benz and BMW vehicles, which are the top two imported brands in the market, decreased as well. Their portions were 42.1 percent and 40 percent last year, declines of 12.3 percent and 6 percent from a year earlier, respectively.

However, the portion of corporate-owned super cars, such as Rolls-Royces, Lamborghinis, Bentleys and Porsches, was still large in spite of the government regulation.

Among 53 Rolls-Royces sold last year, 52 were sold for corporate use. Corporate purchases of Lamborghinis increased from 3 cars in 2015 to 16 cars last year. Also, the portion of corporate-owned Bentleys and Porsches were 76.4 percent and 63.5 percent, respectively.