Car imports in S. Korea surge on demand for European diesel car

South Korea's foreign car imports surged over the past three years as small and diesel cars from Europe became popular among consumers, customs data showed Wednesday.

South Korea imported a total of 153,000 vehicles from overseas in 2013, up 62.8 percent from three years earlier, according to Korea Customs Service (KCS). Foreign car sales continued to rise in the past three years, the customs office said.

As of 2013, European cars accounted for 71.1 percent of the total, followed by the United Sates with 19.1 percent and Japan with 5.1 percent respectively.

The percentages of European and the U.S. cars have risen during the past three years, but popularity for Japanese models cars became weaker.

Demand for diesel cars became much stronger among South Koreans. Diesel car imports made up 64.7 percent of the total in 2013, up from 24.5 percent three years ago.

The portion for gasoline cars tumbled from 75.5 percent in 2010 to 35.3 percent in 2013.

Demand for small- and mid-sized foreign cars took up 75.6 percent of the total in 2013, much higher than 24.4 percent for the large-sized luxury foreign brands.