Asia Tech Wire (Aug 1) -- Hyundai Motor and Kia accounted for more than 67% of registered electric vehicles in South Korea, industry data released Thursday showed.

As of June 2024, there were 606,610 electric vehicles registered in South Korea, according to the Korea Automobile & Mobility Association (KAMA) and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT).

The South Korean government began officially recording EV-related statistics in 2017, when the country had 25,108 registered EVs.

And the latest figure surpassed the 600,000-unit mark for the first time, 24 times more than seven years ago.

In terms of producers, Hyundai Motor accounted for 39.8% with 241,691 units, and Kia accounted for 27.4% with 166,274,000 units, for a combined 67.2% share of their registered EVs.

Tesla, BMW and Mercedes-Benz came in behind Kia with 13.3%, 3.3% and 3.1%, respectively.

In addition, two joint ventures in South Korea, GM Korea and Renault Korea, accounted for 2.6% and 1.7% of the registered EVs, respectively.

Along with the increase in the number of registered EVs, the number of EV charging piles has also continued to grow in the Asian country. As of May, there were 361,163 chargers in South Korea.