U.S. brand cars account for 9.2 pct of S. Korean market

SEOUL, Aug. 21 (Yonhap) -- U.S. brand cars accounted for 9.2 percent of all cars sold in South Korea in the first half, which is higher than the 9.0 percent market share enjoyed by local carmakers in the North American country, industry sources said Sunday.
Local carmakers, such as Hyundai Motor Co. and its sister company Kia Motors Corp., claimed that the public perception that U.S. carmakers are shut out of the domestic market is the result of Seoul not counting vehicles made by overseas companies in local factories as foreign cars.
In the first six months of 2011, the market share of cars made by Ford, General Motors (GM) and Chrysler that were imported made up 0.5 percent of all cars sold, but this figure overlooks local production numbers.
Hyundai pointed out that when Washington tallies South Korean brand cars, it counts those made at the South Korean automaker's Alabama plant, while Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association does not add up cars made by GM's local assembly line.
"GM Korea Co., the South Korean unit of GM, sold 69,482 units in the first half out of 790,861 cars sold nationwide," the carmaker said. It said that if sales of the 3,501 imported Ford and Chrysler vehicles are added, total sales of U.S. brand cars rise to 72,983 units.
Hyundai and Kia, which are the flagship companies of Hyundai Motor Group, the world fifth largest automaker, also said that if cars made locally made by other foreign companies are counted, roughly 25 percent of the local market is made up of foreign brand cars.
Renault Samsung Motors Co., the local unit of French automaker Renault SA, sold 52,602 units up until June, with Ssangyong Motor Co. operated by Indian sport utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. also sold 20,246 units in the January-June period.
"Such numbers shows that South Korea's domestic market is not closed," a Hyundai spokesperson said. He added that there is a need to set new rules for counting foreign brand cars in the country so as to remove unnecessary misunderstandings.