Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announces vehicle registration status, 15,869 vehicles registered as of the end of June
50% discount on highway tolls for electric vehicles starting in September

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (Minister Kim Hyun-mee) announced that as of the end of June 2017, the number of registered automobiles in Korea had exceeded 22 million, and that eco-friendly electric vehicles were showing explosive growth, increasing 35-fold in just five years.

As of the end of June, the number of registered vehicles increased by 385,000 from the end of 2016 to 22,188,565, and the number of people per vehicle is 2.332. The ratio of imported vehicles to domestic vehicles among all registered vehicles is 92:8 (20.41 million units: 1.77 million units), and the ratio of imported vehicles is continuously increasing.

Looking at the registration status of eco-friendly vehicles, the number of electric vehicles increased by about 35 times in five years from 458 units at the end of June 2012 to 15,869 units at the end of June 2017, in line with the government's policy of expanding the supply of eco-friendly vehicles (Green Cars). The number of owners of passenger cars who registered electric vehicles as second cars increased by about 11 times from 335 in 2014 to 3,896 at the end of June 2017, and the number of used electric vehicle transactions (transfer registrations) is also steadily increasing.

In relation to this increase in the supply of electric vehicles, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has been requiring that subsidy payment details from the government or local government be recorded in the automobile registration book since July 2017 in order to resolve the inconvenience of calculating the value of low-emission used vehicles such as electric vehicles when moving into public housing, and is pursuing various measures to promote the use of electric vehicles, such as providing a 50% discount on highway tolls for electric vehicles (excluding hybrids) since September.

By region, Jeju Island remains the largest metropolitan government in electric vehicle registrations, accounting for approximately 46% of all electric vehicle registrations. Compared to the end of last year, Daejeon, Sejong, and Chungbuk showed an increase of more than double, and Daegu and Jeonbuk showed an increase of more than three times.

Meanwhile, these statistics also confirmed that the number of registered campers continues to increase due to the activation of leisure and camping culture. Looking at the trend of the number of registered campers, the number was 1,520 at the end of June 2012, but as of the end of June this year, the number of registered campers increased by about 6 times in almost 5 years, reaching 9,231.

Oh Seong-ik, head of the Automobile Operation Insurance Division at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, “As we enter an era of 22 million registered automobiles, we will continue to provide customized statistics so that automobile policies can be tailored to changes in the automobile market, from policies to expand and distribute eco-friendly vehicles to changes in trends.”