In the first seven months of this year, Bentley, a luxury car brand with prices starting at 300 million won, sold 175 units in South Korea, a 62% decrease compared to the same period last year. The main reason for this decline is reduced demand for corporate vehicles. Last year, 75% of Bentley sales during this period (348 units) were corporate purchases, but this year, only 123 units were sold to corporations.
The automotive industry attributes this sharp decline in corporate vehicle demand to a new government policy. Starting this year, the government requires corporate vehicles priced over 80 million won to display green license plates. This policy aims to prevent the use of high-priced vehicles purchased under corporate names for personal purposes, and it appears to be effective.
According to market tracker Carisyou on Aug. 29, 27,400 corporate vehicles priced over 80 million won were registered from January to July this year, a 27.7% decrease from the same period last year. This drop is much steeper than the 4.2% decline in overall corporate vehicle registrations, both domestic and imported, which totaled 241,172 units.
The impact has been particularly severe for ultra-luxury import brands like Bentley, which only sell vehicles priced in the hundreds of millions of won. Aston Martin, which had 26 corporate registrations last year, recorded just one this year. Maserati’s corporate registrations fell 42%, from 180 to 104 units. Porsche, the most popular among high-end brands, saw a 47% drop, with only 2,219 corporate vehicles registered this year.
Among individual models, the Genesis G90, popular among domestic CEOs and starting at around 90 million won, was significantly affected, with corporate registrations down 46% to 3,607 units. The Mercedes-Benz S-Class, a favored import, also saw a sharp decline, with only 1,843 units registered as corporate vehicles this year, a 64% drop from the same period last year.
