South Korea’s automobile market grew 10.3 percent in 2015 to become the world’s 10th largest in vehicle sales, data showed on Friday.

More than 1.83 million domestically made and imported cars were sold here last year, accounting for 2 percent of auto sales around the world, according to the data compiled by the Korea Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. 

That was up a notch from 2014 when the country was the 11th-largest auto sales market.

KAMA said the increase in auto sales was partly due to a tax cut on auto purchases and strong demand for SUVs.

China posted sales of more than 24.6 million new cars last year, up 4.7 percent from a year earlier to account for 26.8 percent of global sales. China remained the world’s largest automobile market for the seventh consecutive year.

The number of vehicles sold in the United States rose 5.9 percent on-year last year to 17.84 million, making the U.S. No.2 market for new vehicles.

Japan ranked third with 5.04 million vehicles sold last year, down 9.4 percent from a year earlier, followed by Germany with sales of 3.54 million vehicles, India with 3.42 million and Britain with 3.06 million.

Meanwhile, global auto sales edged up 1 percent on-year in 2015 to reach 91.65 million.

In terms of auto production, China again topped the list in auto production last year with 24.5 million units. The U.S. came in second with 12.1 million, followed by Japan with 9.28 million and Germany with 6.19 million.

South Korea ranked fifth with 4.56 million, the data showed.

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)