Eco-friendly vehicles make up 30.3% of Korea’s automotive exports

Eco-friendly vehicles were responsible for 30.3 percent of South Korea’s total car exports in the first five months of this year, according to the Korea International Trade Association on Monday.

South Korea exported $20.45 billion worth of cars from January to May, and 30.3 percent of them were eco-friendly, showing an 8.7 percentage points increase on-year.

According to KITA, such an increase comes from growing global demand for carbon-neutral vehicles and the launch of all-electric models by domestic carmakers such as Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6.

Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association (KAMA) data showed that the country exported a total of 901,260 vehicles over the same period, and 23.8 percent of them were green cars, an increase of 6.4 percentage points on-year. This is the first time that the ratio has surpassed 20 percent, KAMA said.

Hyundai Ioniq 5 was the most exported electric vehicle with 25,381 units, followed by Kia EV6 with 25,052 units.

Among hybrids, Renault Korea XM3 was the most exported with 26,597 units, followed by Hyundai Kona (14,422) and Kia Niro (13,078).

Hyundai’s hydrogen fuel cell model exported a total of 119 units.

The price tag on eco-friendly cars also increased over the year.

KITA data showed that the average price of an eco-friendly car for the January to May period this year stood at $28,865, up 4 percent from the same period last year.

The association said the average price of an eco-friendly car is likely to surpass $30,000 by the end of 2022.

By Hong Yoo (yoohong@heraldcorp.com)