SEOUL, July 3 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's imported car sales rose in single digits in June due to solid demand for German luxury models and U.S. electric vehicles, industry data showed Thursday.

The number of imported vehicles sold here gained 9.8 percent from a year earlier to 27,779 in June, according to the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association (KAIDA).

For the first six months of this year, 138,120 foreign vehicles were sold domestically, up 9.9 percent compared with the same period of last year.

German automaker BMW ranked first in terms of automotive sales here among foreign companies by selling 6,553 units in June.

U.S. carmaker Tesla came next with the sale of 6,377 units, followed by German carmaker Mercedes-Benz with 6,037 units, Lexus with 1,230 units, Volvo with 1,067 units and Porsche with 1,056 units.

The number of European models sold here was 18,237 in June, taking up 65.7 percent of the total. U.S., Japanese and Chinese brands recorded the market shares of 25.7 percent, 7.9 percent and 0.8 percent each. ■