Electric vehicles in S.Korea beat diesel cars in sales

Sales of electric vehicles (EVs) in South Korea last year including hybrids surpassed those of diesel cars for the first time due to the price of diesel fuel being higher than that of gasoline and the expansion of EV infrastructure in the country.

Pure EVs also accounted for 9.8% of all new car registrations last year.

The Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association on Thursday said sales of gas-powered vehicles last year decreased 5.4% and those of diesel cars 19.8% from 2021, while EVs saw sales growth of 28.7%. Last year, EV sales reached 448,934 units, surpassing diesel vehicles with 333,522 for the first time.

Diesel vehicles saw 415,925 units newly registered in 2021, but their sales volume saw a major drop last year given the growing preference for eco-friendly vehicles and the soaring price of diesel fuel.

By type of EV power source, hybrids including plug-ins saw the most sales among EVs with 274,282 units. Pure battery EVs, aka BEVs, also sold 164,324 units, raising their share in the domestic car market to 9.8% and enjoying sales growth of 63.7% from 100,355 in 2021.

CarlsYou Data Research Center said the cumulative number of EVs running in Korea as of December last year was 303,281, exceeding 300,000 for the first time. Last year, the top three players on the domestic passenger EV market were Hyundai Motor Co., Kia Corp. and Tesla.

The Kia EV6 was the nation's bestselling personal EV based on the number of individual registrations with 13,748 units, with Hyundai Motor's IONIQ 5 second with 11,798 and IONIQ 6 third with 6,041. Tesla sold 5,362 units of its Model 3 and 5,228 of its Model Y.

Write to Han-Shin Park at phs@hankyung.com