SEOUL: South Korea’s imported luxury car sale rose slightly last year amid the supply shortage of semiconductors used to make vehicles, industry data showed on Wednesday.

The number of imported vehicles, sold in the local market, was 276,146 in 2021, up 0.5 per cent from the previous year, according to the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association.

The slight growth was attributed to the supply shortage of chips that offset positive factors, such as rollout of new models, tax cut for car purchases and aggressive marketing by foreign automakers.

German automaker Mercedes-Benz ranked first in terms of automotive sale by selling 76,152 vehicles here last year. It was down 0.9 per cent from the prior year.

German carmaker BMW came next with the sale of 65,669 vehicles here in 2021, up 12.5 per cent from a year earlier.

It was followed by Audi with the sale of 25,615 vehicles, Volvo with 15,053 units and Volkswagen with 14,364 units.

The sale of European brands reached 224,839 units here last year, accounting for 80.5 per cent of the total. The sale of US and Japanese brands amounted to 30,759 units and 20,548 units, respectively.

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