The Tesla Model Y Premium outsold Kia's Sorento in August to become the best-selling passenger car in South Korea, while Tesla held its position as the top imported car brand for a seventh consecutive month.
New registrations of imported passenger cars totaled 29,817 units last month, up 9.2% from 27,304 a year earlier, the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association said on the 3rd. The figure was down 3.7% from 30,976 in the previous month. Cumulative registrations for the January-August period reached 244,825 units, a 27.2% increase from a year earlier.
By brand, Tesla ranked first with 10,400 registrations, followed by BMW with 6,180, Mercedes-Benz with 4,037, BYD with 3,002, Toyota with 1,015 and Lexus with 840. Tesla has led monthly sales every month this year except January, when BMW took the top spot. Tesla sold 76,776 units from January through August, up 122.3% from a year earlier.
The best-selling model was the Tesla Model Y Premium at 7,490 units, ahead of the Sorento, the top-selling domestic model at 6,397 units. The Model Y Premium Long Range came in second at 1,746 units, followed by the BMW 520 with 1,270, the BYD Dolphin with 1,115, the BYD Sealion 7 with 819 and the Mercedes-Benz E200 with 756. The Model Y had already outsold the Sorento in May and the Grandeur in July when its Premium and Premium Long Range versions were combined, but this time the Premium model alone beat the domestic leaders.
By country of manufacture, European brands accounted for 14,297 registrations, or 47.9% of the total, followed by the United States with 10,630 units, or 35.7%, China with 3,002 units, or 10.1%, and Japan with 1,888 units, or 6.3%. By fuel type, electric vehicles led with 15,183 units, or 50.9%, followed by hybrids with 11,923 units, or 40.0%, gasoline with 2,540 units, or 8.5%, and diesel with 171 units, or 0.6%. It was the first time electric vehicles exceeded 50% of imported passenger car registrations.
Chung Yoon-young, vice chairman of the association, said the slight month-on-month decline in August registrations reflected inventory depletion and supply shortages tied to new model launches at some brands.
