Seoul: The Republic of Korea’s 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.

Yonhap News Agency cited data from the Korea Automobile and Mobility Association (KAMA) showing that registrations of new cars during the January-September period totalled 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 d
emand.

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

Source: Emirates News Agency