Sales of imported cars fall 4.7 pct in Aug.

Sales of imported cars fell 4.7 percent on-year in August amid a substantial drop in Mercedes-Benz vehicle sales after a massive fire incident involving one of the company's electric vehicles last month, according to industry data Wednesday. The number of newly registered imported cars came to 22,263 units in August, down from 23,350 units a year ago, according to the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association. BMW was the most popular brand last month, selling 5,880 units, followed by Mercedes-Benz, which sold 5,286 units. Sales of BMW fell 6.7 percent on-year, while those of Mercedes-Benz plunged 19.8 percent. Tesla, Volvo and Lexus came next, with 2,208 units, 1,445 units and 1,355 units, respectively. In terms of fuel types, imported hybrid registrations totaled 11,041 units, accounting for 49.6 percent of all import sales. Gasoline, electric and plug-in hybrid models followed at 24.6 percent, 18.5 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively. Per individual model, Tesla's Model Y and Merced es-Benz's E300 4MATIC were the bestselling cars last month, selling 1,215 and 1,193 units, respectively. Tesla's Model 3 and Volkswagen's ID.4 came in third and fourth, with 921 and 911 units, respectively. Source: Yonhap News Agency