There is no recession in the imported automobile industry. Since 2009, more than KRW 100 million of `expensive cars` has exceeded 10% of total sales in eight years. One of the 10 imported cars sold last year is worth more than KRW 100 million. In January this year, when a severe cold wave hit, the popularity of expensive cars continues, and the import car industry is early spring.

According to the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association (KAIDA) on March 7, among the 23,308 imported vehicles registered in Korea last year, the number of vehicles over 100 million won accounted for 10.22%, reaching 23,821. It is only 8 years since 2009 (10.71%) that imported car market share of more than KRW 100 million exceeded 10%.

The proportion of vehicles with sales of KRW 100 million or more accounted for 8.99% of total sales in 2010, down 9.46% in 2011, 8.43% in 2012, 7.18% in 2013 and 7.63% It did not exceed the 10% barrier by 2015 (9.37%) and by 2016 (8.73%). In January of this year, the number of cars registered in January totaled 27,884, accounting for 13.21 percent, among the total of 21,757 registered cars.

The price of the expensive car was led by Mercedes-Benz and BMW, which are the `top two` of the imported automobile industry.

The two companies last year sold 11,606 cars and 7,142 cars, respectively, over KRW 100 million. It is close to 80% of total imported car sales of over 100 million won. Eight out of ten imported cars worth KRW 100 million or more are Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

Meanwhile, popular models for each company are clearly distinguished. BMW`s most popular 100 million won or more is the Sport Activity Vehicle (SAV) `X6 3.0d`, which sold 1941 cars last year. The model currently available on the market has a displacement of 2993 cc with a maximum output of 258 hp and a maximum torque of 57.1 kg • m. It can reach up to 100km (zero back) per hour in the state of the 6.7 seconds stop in the original state. Combined fuel consumption is 10.5 km per ℓ. The price of the vehicle is 100 million won including VAT.

In the case of Mercedes, "S Class" synonymous with luxury cars became the main share. Among them, `S350d 4 matic` was the highest number of 2,677. The current model has a displacement of 2925cc, with a maximum output of 286 hp and a maximum torque of 61.2 kg/m. Zero back is 5.8 seconds. The combined fuel cost is 12.4 km per liter. The price of the vehicle is KRW 144.5 million.

In terms of automakers, high-priced cars are a `benefactor` that boosts company sales with the effect of building a `luxury` image, the higher the value, the greater the margin. Although we have not submitted an audit report yet, sales are expected to increase sharply due to higher sales of high-priced cars.

Mercedes-Benz Korea reported sales of KRW 3.78 trillion and operating profit of KRW 114.3 billion in 2016. At the time, the vehicle sales were 56,343, and last year it sold 68,861. Last year, the company sold 11,460 vehicles worth more than KRW 100 million, so the sales of these vehicles alone amounted to KRW 1.146 trillion.

BMW Korea has sold 48,459 vehicles in 2016 and recorded sales of KRW 3.95 trillion and operating profit of KRW 6.4 billion. Last year, the company sold 50,924 vehicles. It is estimated that sales of more than KRW 100 million will increase sales to KRW 700 billion.

BMW and Mercedes-Benz have followed the Land Rover (2882 cars), followed by Porsche (929 cars), Jaguar (607 cars), etc. appear.

By Kim Ji Seob cloud50@


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