Number of cars in S. Korea hits record high of 18.26 mln

SEOUL, July 7 (Yonhap) -- The number of registered vehicles in South Korea reached 18.26 million as of the end of June, the transportation ministry said Thursday, amid brisk sales by automakers here. The figure represents a 1.8 percent increase from 17.94 million cars registered as of the end of 2010, according to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs. The number of cars in South Korea exceeded 18 million for the first time in January. The number of all registered cars rose by a net 321,617 units in the January-June period, marking a 0.3 percent drop from the same period last year when the comparable number rose by 322,589 units. "Still, the number of vehicles newly registered in the first half of the year rose 12.8 percent from 750,000 units during the same period last year to 850,000 units on the launch of new vehicle models and an increase of people who need to replace older vehicles," the ministry said. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy earlier said the number of cars aged 10 years or more increased 12.2 percent from 4.77 million at the end of 2009 to 5.35 million at the end of last year. Of the total, 45 percent or 8.21 million cars were registered in the Seoul metropolitan area, which includes the surrounding Gyeonggi Province, according to the transportation ministry. The number of passenger cars came to 13.95 million, accounting for 76.4 percent of all cars registered here, with 3.22 million cargo trucks making up 17.7 percent of the total. The number of imported cars reached 568,859, accounting for 3.1 percent of the total, the ministry said.