Korea is fast becoming the top Asian market for foreign luxury cars. Last month, Italian supercar maker Ferrari chose Korea to be the first Asian country to showcase the Purosangue, its first SUV which took six years to develop. Ferrari was widely expected to unveil the Purosange in Japan.
Lamborghini also chose Korea as the first country in Asia to launch the latest version of its Urus SUV earlier this month.
Until recently Korea was not considered a major market for foreign carmakers because it was small. But demand for premium imported cars is increasing, with sales of Porsches and other high-end cars surpassing 10,000 a year and Mercedes-Benz Korea achieving annual sales of more than W6 trillion (US$1=W1,319).
One staffer at an importer said, "Korea has become a premium market like Japan in terms of sales and growth potential."
The growth of supercar sales in Korea is startling. Japan's car market is 2.6 times larger than Korea's, but that is not the case for imported cars.
Last month, 17,011 imported cars were sold in Japan compared to 25,363 in Korea. Mercedes-Benz and BMW sales are higher in Korea than in Japan, and sales of Lamborghinis, Rolls Royces and Bentleys are about the same. Last year, Mercedes-Benz sold 76,152 cars in Korea worth over W10 trillion.
Foreign automakers are putting more weight on their Korean subsidiaries. Audi followed in the footsteps of BMW and Volvo to appoint a Korean as the head of the local subsidiary, while Ford CEO Jim Farley, Renault Group chairman Luca de Meo and GM International chief Shilpan Amin all visited Korea recently.
A rapid shift to electric cars is also increasing the appeal of the Korean market. EV sales increased 115 percent last year in Korea, the second highest after China's 158 percent.
Almost half of Korea's total population lives in Seoul and surrounding Gyeonggi Province, mostly in apartment blocks, which is likely to provide an ideal infrastructure for electric cars with charging stations at every corner.
