[THE INVESTOR] Sales of imported vehicles in Korea rose 21.1 percent in May compared with a year earlier on strong demand for German cars, industry data showed on June 7.

The number of newly registered foreign vehicles rose to 23,470 last month from 19,380 a year earlier, the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association said in a statement.

The three best-selling models were BMW’s 520d sedan, Volkswagen’s Tiguan 2.0 TDI and Audi’s A6 35 TDI sedan. In May, six out of 10 imported vehicles sold in Korea were made by German carmakers, while Japanese cars accounted for 15.7 percent of imported vehicles, the statement said.

In the January-May period, imported car sales reached 116,798 units, up 23.7 percent from 94,397 a year earlier.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)