German car registration number South Korea 1987-2023

Around 193.6 thousand cars from German brands were registered in South Korea in 2023, a slight decrease from the previous year. The German Mercedes-Benz was the first foreign automobile brand to be officially imported and sold in Korea in 1987, when the Korean government opened up the market to foreign cars. Unfortunately, like other imported brands, sales of German cars dropped in the aftermath of the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
In 2015, German automakers sold more than 167 thousand sold over the year. Sales dropped, however, in 2016 and 2017 in the aftermath of the Volkswagen emissions falsification scandal, when Volkswagen knowingly falsified the emissions from their diesel engines. The Korean government canceled the import certifications of 32 Volkswagen and Audi models. Audi is a member of the Volkswagen Group, which is also the parent group of Volkswagen. Sales of Audis dropped to less than a thousand in 2017, while Volkswagen sold no cars at all.