Sales of eco-friendly cars jump 30 pct through June

SEOUL, July 21 (Yonhap) -- Sales of environment-friendly cars in South Korea jumped 30 percent in the first six months of the year on the back of strong demand for electric vehicles (EVs), industry data showed Sunday.

The number of environmentally friendly vehicles, such as hybrid electric, all-electric and hydrogen fuel-cell electric models, sold in the January-June period reached 70,142 units, up 30.4 percent from the same period in 2018, according to data from the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association (KAMA) and foreign automakers.

In contrast, overall sales of passenger cars dipped 4.7 percent on-year to 735,646 units in the first half of the year, the data showed.

The portion of eco-friendly cars rose to 9.5 percent from 7 percent a year earlier.

In the first six months of the year, 52,895 environment-friendly vehicles from domestic automakers were sold, up 27.5 percent from a year ago. Sales of imported eco-friendly cars soared 40.4 percent on-year to 17,247 units in the January-June period, the data showed.

But in terms of all registered cars, eco-friendly vehicles accounted for a meager 2.8 percent as of June, the data showed.

sam@yna.co.kr
(END)