SEOUL, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's imported car sales jumped in double digits in October, driven by explosive demand for electric vehicles (EVs) and German luxury models, industry data showed Wednesday.
The number of newly imported passenger car registrations here advanced 29.3 percent from a year earlier to 31,117 in October, according to the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association.
For the first 10 months of 2026, 310,846 imported vehicles were sold, up 24.6 percent compared to the same period of last year.
U.S. automaker Tesla took a top spot in terms of automotive sales here among foreign companies by selling 9,165 units.
German automaker Mercedes-Benz came next with the sales of 6,744 units, followed by German carmaker BMW with 5,633 units, Volvo with 1,682 units and Chinese automaker BYD with 1,594 units.
The number of European models sold here was 17,573 last month, taking up 56.5 percent of the total. U.S., Japanese and Chinese brands recorded the market shares of 30.0 percent, 8.0 percent and 5.5 percent each.
By fuel type, battery-powered EVs accounted for 46.4 percent, followed by hybrid vehicles with 45.9 percent, gasoline vehicles with 6.8 percent and diesel models with 0.9 percent. ■
