“The steady increase in vehicle registration in 2016 was helped by the launch of various new cars, as well as the temporary reduction in consumption tax until the end of June that was designed to help boost local sales of vehicles.” (image: KobizMedia/ Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Jan. 17 (Korea Bizwire) – The number of registered vehicles in South Korea continued to grow, nearing 22 million in 2016, the government said Tuesday.
Car registrations came to 21,803,351 units as of end-2016, up 3.9 percent or some 813,000 from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
The gain marks a slight slowdown from a 4.3 percent on-year increase in 2015.
“The steady increase in vehicle registration in 2016 was helped by the launch of various new cars, as well as the temporary reduction in consumption tax until the end of June that was designed to help boost local sales of vehicles,” the ministry said in a press release.
The number of locally produced cars newly registered in 2016 came to about 1.83 million, down 0.6 percent from the previous year.
The number of newly registered imported vehicles plunged 6.7 percent on-year to some 269,000 units.
Still, the combined market share of imported cars continued to rise, coming to 7.5 percent as of end-2016, up 0.9 percentage point from a year earlier.
Also, the number of environmentally friendly cars registered here jumped more than 35 percent on-year to over 244,000 in 2016.
“On a government policy to promote green cars, the number of environmentally friendly cars is growing rapidly,” the ministry said. “The number of electric cars registered here stood at only 344 at end-2011, but the number has jumped more than 31 times in just five years to 10,855 as of end-2016.”
(Yonhap)
