The number of registered vehicles in South Korea grew nearly 2 percent this year to near 25 million, with that of eco-friendly cars topping 1 million units, government data showed Monday.

Car registrations came to 24.78 million units as of end-September, up 1.7 percent from the end of last year, according to the data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

The figure is also up 0.5 percent from three months earlier, with the number expected to exceed 25 million during the first half of next year.

The number of environmentally friendly cars registered here climbed 9.2 percent from three months earlier to reach 1.06 million as of end-September, accounting for 4.3 percent of total car registrations.

Electric vehicle registrations swelled 16.4 percent to 200,100 units over the cited period, with the number of newly registered hybrid cars rising 7.6 percent to 844,000.

A ministry official said the number of newly registered green vehicles rose solidly thanks to the government's carbon-neutral policy and new model launches, despite the slight gain in overall car registrations.

Of the vehicles newly registered during the third quarter of the year, locally produced vehicles came to 331,000, accounting for 81.2 percent of the total. Newly registered imported vehicles numbered 77,000 units in the three-month period, taking up 18.8 percent, according to the data. (Yonhap)