Although green license plates have been introduced, the sale of high-priced corporate cars has continued to rise.
The Korea Imported Car Association analyzed the corporate car sales figures from seven luxury brands (BMW, Bentley, Lamborghini, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Rolls-Royce).
In the first month of the new year, the seven imported car brands sold a total of 8,307 units, a 19.4% decrease compared to 10,309 units sold in the same month of the previous year. However, corporate car sales among these brands increased by 3.5% to 3,633 units (43.7%) compared to 4,147 units (40.2%) in the same month of the previous year.
The introduction of green license plates has not deterred the purchase of high-end vehicles by corporations. This result demonstrates that there is no correlation between the green plate introduction and the sales of expensive corporate cars.
Rolls-Royce and Lamborghini, which have an average price bracket of 600 to 700 million won, each sold 7 and 9 units respectively at the very start of the year, all as corporate cars. Last year, in the same month, Rolls-Royce had only one personal sale (5.3%) out of 19 units sold, while Lamborghini had six personal sales (21.5%) out of 28.
BMW’s sales figures also dropped from 6,089 units to 4,330 units, a 29% decrease, but corporate sales surged to 1,747 units (40.3%), marking a nearly 12% increase compared to 1,763 units (28.9%) in the same month the previous year, achieving the highest increase rate in corporate car sales.
Other brands showed similar trends, with Bentley having 8 out of 13 units (61.5%) sold as corporate cars, Land Rover with 203 out of 340 (59.7%), Porsche with 317 out of 677 (46.8%), and Mercedes-Benz with 1,342 out of 2,931 (45.7%) of car sales classified as corporate.
Lee Sang-jin daedusj@autodiary.kr