Exports of eco-friendly cars grew by double digits in the first quarter of this year, but total exports of cars turned downward.
According to the “First Quarter of 2022 Car Trade Status” released by the Korea Customs Service on the 28th, auto exports from January to March amounted to $10.93 billion, down 0.6% from a year ago. It is the first time in eight quarters that auto exports have stepped back since the first quarter of 2020 when COVID-19 began. Exports fell 8.3 percent to 520,000 units.
Imports rose 4.6 percent to $3.01 billion. The number of imported cars dropped 3.1 percent to 70,000 units.
At least, exports of eco-friendly cars increased, reducing the scope of the decline. Exports of eco-friendly cars rose 48.3 percent to $3.59 billion in the first quarter from a year earlier. This is the second-highest performance in history after $3.67 billion in the fourth quarter of last year.
The Korea Customs Service explained, “The proportion of eco-friendly passenger cars exports continues to expand despite difficult conditions such as the COVID-19 incident, the supply and demand of vehicle semiconductors, and the Russia-Ukraine war.”
The average unit price of exports per passenger car was $29,979, up 8.4 percent from the first quarter of last year. The average unit price of imports also rose 8.0% to $44,817. The unit price of exports compared to the unit price of imports stood at 46.8 percent, up 0.2 percentage point from 46.6 percent a year ago.
In terms of exports, the unit price of eco-friendly vehicles rose 4.5 percent to $29,104, which has been on the rise for 17 consecutive quarters since the first quarter of 2018. Large gasoline vehicles (12.7 percent) and mid-sized gasoline vehicles (7.9 percent) also rose.
The unit price of imported cars was 11.4% for eco-friendly cars ($50,86), 9.9% for large gasoline vehicles ($62,280), and 5.5% for large diesel vehicles ($81,340).
