The number of imported cars in Korea exceeded 6 percent of the total registered vehicles this year. The number had broken the one million mark last year.
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, the number added up to 1,245,157 as of the end of last month to show an 11.8 percent increase in comparison to that at the end of 2014. Likewise, the ratio went up from 5.5 percent to 6.1 percent during the same period. These figures are conspicuous, in that the total number of vehicles registered in Korea edged up by 2.14 percent from 20,117,955 to 20,548,879.
When it comes to newly-registered vehicles, the number of Korean cars increased by just 3.5 percent or 794,000 cars between June 2014 and last month, whereas that of imported cars recorded a growth rate of 30.1 percent or 137,000 cars.
The number of imported cars in Korea had been much less until 2002. However, it continued to increase since then and exceeded one million last year, when the Korea-EU FTA became effective for zero tariffs on cars with an engine displacement of at least 1,500 cc. The popularity of Japanese cars increased a lot based on the weak yen, too.