Tesla again led South Korea’s imported-car market in April, topping 10,000 monthly sales and extending its lead for a third straight month after first surpassing BMW in February.
The Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association said April registrations of imported passenger cars rose 58.1% from a year earlier to 33,993 units, up from 21,495.
That was 0.1% higher than March’s 33,970. Cumulative registrations through April reached 116,113 units, up 41.3% from 82,152 a year earlier.
By brand, Tesla ranked No. 1 with 13,190 registrations. Best-selling models included the Model Y Premium (9,328) and the Model 3 Premium Long Range (1,481).
BMW followed with 6,658, then Mercedes-Benz with 4,796, BYD with 2,023 and Volvo with 1,105.
Lexus (1,079), Audi (918), Toyota (829), Mini (696) and Porsche (679) rounded out the top 10.
By engine displacement, vehicles under 2,000cc accounted for 9,087 registrations (26.7%), followed by 2,000cc to under 3,000cc with 5,565 (16.4%), 3,000cc to under 4,000cc with 544 (1.6%) and 4,000cc or more with 478 (1.4%).
By fuel type, electric vehicles led with 18,319 registrations (53.9%), followed by hybrids with 12,777 (37.6%), gasoline with 2,734 (8.0%) and diesel with 163 (0.5%).
Individuals bought 22,089 vehicles (65.0%), while corporate buyers accounted for 11,904 (35.0%).
Among individual purchases, Gyeonggi led with 7,427 registrations (33.6%), followed by Seoul with 4,075 (18.4%) and Incheon with 1,732 (7.8%). For corporate purchases, Busan ranked first with 3,798 (31.9%), followed by Incheon with 3,458 (29.0%) and South Gyeongsang with 2,067 (17.4%).
KAIDA Vice Chairman Jeong Yun-young said April registrations held near the previous month’s level despite mixed brand performance, supported by strong EV sales and new-model launches by some brands.
* This article has been translated by AI.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.