SEOUL, Sales of imported vehicles in South Korea fell 19 percent last month from a year earlier amid slowing sales of electric vehicles, an industry association said Monday. The number of newly registered imported cars came to 13,083 units in January, down from 16,222 units a year ago, the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association (KAIDA) said in a statement. "Lower demand during the offseason, undecided government subsidies for electric vehicles, and lack of inventories in some brands weighed on the monthly sales," the statement said. The three bestselling models last month were BMW's 520 sedan, Mercedes-Benz's E300 4MATIC sedan, and the Lexus ES300h sedan. In January, three German brands -- Volkswagen Group Korea, BMW Group Korea and Mercedes-Benz Korea -- sold a combined 8,170 units, down 34 percent from 12,365 the previous year. German cars accounted for 62 percent of imported cars sold in Asia's fourth-biggest economy last month, up from the previous year's 76 percent, KAIDA said. Th ree Japanese brands -- Honda Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp. and its independent brand Lexus -- sold 1,961 units last month, more than doubling from 910 a year earlier. Imported brands accounted for 21.65 percent of the Korean passenger vehicle market in December, up from 20.98 percent a year ago. Their market share for January has yet to be released, KAIDA said. Source: Yonhap News Agency