Bentley's Continental vehicles are seen in this file photo. Courtesy of Bentley Korea

Bentley, Porsche and Rolls-Royce have seen their sales plunge in Korea since the government introduced a rule mandating the attachment of green license plates for company cars valued at over 80 million won ($57,800), according to data and company officials, Monday.

The change took effect as of the beginning of 2024. The rule — introduced by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport — is aimed at blocking business owners from purchasing supercars as company vehicles to dodge taxes.

Data from the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association (KAIDA) showed the number of luxury imported vehicles newly registered here reached 3,868 in March, down 31.4 percent from the previous year.

Of particular note is the steep sales fall of the three aforementioned pricey carmakers here. The number of Bentley vehicles being registered in Korea plunged by 77.4 percent for the first three months from the previous year. Rolls-Royce and Porsche also reported declines of 35.2 percent and 22.9 percent, respectively, during the same period.

A green license plate belonging to company-owned vehicles valued at over 80 million won ($57,800) / Courtesy of Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport

Company officials attributed the falling demand for luxury supercars to the effect of the lime green plates.

"Generally speaking, few customers or business owners prefer to purchase vehicles with green plates due to the prevalent negative image on rental and lease cars," an official from a luxury carmaker said. "This will weaken the overall sentiment from business owners who plan to purchase luxury cars as fleet vehicles."

Other data also showed that fewer business owners are purchasing luxury cars for company use. According to data from KAIDA, the portion of registered company vehicles out of the total imported cars here declined sharply.

A total of 25,263 imported cars were registered in March, up 6 percent from the previous year, but the portion of company cars accounted for 28.4 percent. This is the first time that the figure fell below 30 percent. Last year, imported company-owned vehicles took up almost 40 percent of the total being registered.

Sales of Lamborghini cars also suffered a decline of 22.2 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, hit by the introduction of the green plate rule on luxury company-owned vehicles. Lamborghini sold 90 percent of its vehicles as fleet cars in Korea last year. The figure for Rolls-Royce also came in at 87.3 percent during the same period. The figures for Bentley and Porsche reached 76 percent and 61.1 percent, respectively.

Others from the industry said luxury carmakers ended up suffering sharp sales fall due to the combination of the economic slump and the introduction of the regulation.

"As the economy is showing no immediate signs of a rebound, demand for pricey vehicles declines," another official from a different carmaker said.

"To make matters worse, the regulation also comes as a bane for such supercar makers to rev up their diminishing sales performance here," another official from an imported carmaker said.