The number of registered vehicles in South Korea has exceeded 20 million for the first time, doubling in 17 years, government statistics showed Tuesday.
A list of records provided by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on crossing the new threshold showed South Korea is the world’s 15th and Asia’s fourth nation to reach over the 20 million mark. In Asia, Japan, China and India have reached the number.
As of the end of last month, the number of registered cars in the country came to 20,002,967.
The government began collecting related data from 1945. Since then, it took 52 years to reach 10 million.
Ministry officials said the growth in the number of registered vehicles reflects the size and importance of the country’s automobile market.
South Korea is one of the world’s largest automobile producers with its local industry leader, Hyundai Motor Co., posting annual sales of US$75 billion, the world’s eighth-largest, in 2013.
Together with its smaller affiliate Kia Motors Corp., the company makes up the world’s fifth-largest automotive group, Hyundai Motor Group.
South Korea currently has three other automakers — GM Korea, Renault Samsung Motors and Ssangyong Motor, the local units of U.S., French and Indian automakers, respectively.
Having 20 million cars means one vehicle per 2.56 persons here.
The number of households per vehicle has been declining steadily from 1.53 in 1995 to 0.97 in 2010.
Of the total registered, 78 percent, or some 15.64 million cars, are passenger vehicles, and 93.4 percent of them are locally produced cars.
As of end-October, the number of imported vehicles came to about 1.03 million, or 6.6 percent, of the total.
Imports, however, are quickly expanding their market share with the number of new imported vehicles sold here in the first nine months of the year, spiking 40.1 percent on-year to 17,750 units, accounting for 12.2 percent of all new vehicles sold here over the cited period.
Sales of locally produced vehicles had gained 8.7 percent on-year to 110,696 over the same period, according to data released earlier from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. (Yonhap)
