Tesla has emerged as a major player in South Korea’s imported passenger vehicle market this year, with BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi set to close the year as the three best-selling brands, industry data showed on Wednesday.
Tesla’s vehicle sales have been on the rise since September when it began to bring in Model Y midsized SUVs manufactured at its Shanghai plant at sharply lowered prices compared with the Model Y’s U.S.-made versions.
Tesla began to deliver its models, starting with the Model S 90D, to the Korean market in June 2017. It currently sells the Model S flagship sedan, the Model X flagship SUV, and the rear-wheel-drive Model Y SUV in Korea, while operating 1,007 stalls at 147 supercharger stations here, reports Yonhap news agency.
The Shanghai-made Model Y is widely expected to continue to boost Tesla’s vehicle sales due to its price competitiveness and the rising demand for emission-free cars.
In the January-November period, Tesla ranked fourth with sales of 15,439 units, exceeding its bigger rivals: Volvo Cars with 15,410 units and Lexus with 12,191 units, according to data from the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association (KAIDA) and local market tracker CarIsYou.
Local demand for German brands remained strong this year as a growing number of consumers prefer high-end and high-performance models. German carmakers, including the three brands mentioned above and the Volkswagen brand, sold a total of 173,579 units in the 11 months, accounting for 71 percent of overall imported vehicle sales of 243,811 autos, KAIDA data showed.
BMW topped others by selling 69,546 units, followed by Mercedes-Benz with 68,156 units and Audi with 16,650 units in the first 11 months.
Japanese brands — Honda Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp., and its independent brand, Lexus — saw their sales rebound this year after suffering years of sluggish demand due to a trade dispute between Seoul and Tokyo.
Local consumers shunned Japanese vehicles over the neighbor’s restrictions on exports of key materials to South Korea in 2019.
