Mercedes-Benz Korea said Thursday it will launch an all-electric vehicle and four hybrid models to its lineup this year to gain a bigger market share in Asia's fourth-largest economy, Trend reoprts citing Yonhap.
In 2019, the German carmaker plans to introduce a new purely electric EQC crossover called and four kinds of plug-in gasoline hybrid models in Korea this year, the company said in a statement.
"We will do our utmost to provide the best products and services in the upcoming era of future mobility. We want to innovate further our product portfolio (with emission-free next-generation models)," Mercedes-Benz Korea President and Chief Executive Dimitris Psillakis said in a press conference.
Asked about Mercedes-Benz Korea's sales target for this year, Psillakis said the company will continue investing in after-sales services and employee training programs.
But he expressed caution that there may be unexpected headwinds for the company this year if the Korean economy slows down.
The new EQC is the first all-electric model under the EQ brand, one of four brands, together with Mercedes-Benz, AMG and Maybach, under the German auto giant. It can travel up to 450 kilometers on a single charge and is capable of sprinting from zero to 100 km/h in 5.1 seconds, the statement said.
The company also plans to introduce nine new models and six facelifts to cement its leading position in the Korean passenger car market. It didn't elaborate on the four hybrid models.
For the whole of 2018, Mercedes-Benz topped other imported carmakers by selling 70,798 vehicles in the country, helped by the popularity of its E-Class sedan and SUV models. The total was up 2.8 percent from 68,861 units a year earlier, the statement said.
Korea is the fifth-biggest market for the German carmaker after China, the United States, Germany and Britain in terms of sales.
Last year, imported carmakers sold 260,705 vehicles in Korea, an increase of 12 percent from 233,068 a year earlier. Six out of 10 imported cars were from Germany, according to the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association.