Mercedes-Benz Korea, the local importer of the luxury German car brand, will be able to sell over

40,000 units in South Korea this year given the company's first half performance, the vice president of sales has said.

The company will also focus more on launching SUVs over sedans during the remainder of the year, with a plan to introduce all its SUV models in South Korea going forward, Choi Duk-jun added.

"We sold around 22,000 units in the first half and expect to sell as many in the latter half," Choi told a group of reporters during an opening event for a pop-up store Tuesday in the southern port city of Busan. "My guess is that we can sell over 40,000 units this year."

This is the first time that it has provided any sales outlook for the year. The figure is lower than German rival BMW Korea, which is expected to sell around 50,000 units in South Korea this year.

Mercedes-Benz plans to unveil the facelift versions of four already launched SUV models this year before introducing all the others "in phases."

New SUVs to be introduced in Korea include both existing and future models that the German carmaker will launch in global markets down the road, another company official told Yonhap News Agency.

Choi put more emphasis on quality than quantity when asked how he is going to beat archrival BMW in the Korean market.

"Our top priority is to be loved by our customers. I believe that if we work hard, it will bring us the result fitting that effort," Choi said. "The focus should be placed on quality rather than short-term quantity numbers." (Yonhap)