Seoul: New automobile sales during the first nine months of the year fell over 8 percent from a year earlier amid high borrowing costs and a slowdown in global electric vehicle demand, industry data showed Wednesday.
According to Yonhap News Agency, registrations of new cars during the January-September period totaled 1,209,154 units, down 8.7 percent from a year ago. It marked the lowest recording for the nine-month period since the 1,175,010 units tallied in 2013.
The number of gasoline vehicles decreased 19.6 percent on-year to 515,000 units, while diesel registrations plummeted 56.7 percent to 99,000 units. EV registrations also fell 7.9 percent to 108,000. Hybrids was the only category that saw a bump in registrations, adding 27.6 percent to 355,000 units.
Industry watchers have attributed high-interest rates as having led to consumers holding back on car purchases, as well as an overall stagnation of EV demand. The country’s annual tally is also estimated to reach its lowest level in 11 years, barely
exceeding 1.6 million units. KAMA previously predicted annual sales to reach 1.7 million units.