[Economy 365]

New registrations of hybrid cars in South Korea have declined for the first time this year.

From January to September of this year, the number of registered hybrid cars, including mild hybrids, stood at 421,199, down 3.9% from the same period last year.

This marks the first time that hybrid car registrations for the January-to-September period have decreased since statistics began in 2013.

Their share of all new vehicle registrations also fell by 0.4 percentage points to 34.1%.

On the other hand, new electric vehicle registrations surged 74.8% to 296,801.

Meanwhile, registrations for gasoline cars dropped 19.4%, yielding the top spot in fuel-type registrations to hybrid cars.

Analysts attribute this trend to a combination of recovering electric vehicle demand, production disruptions at Hyundai Motor and Kia, and the aging of core models.

Industry insiders predict that hybrid car registrations could rebound in the fourth quarter, driven by the release of new hybrid models.

*This article was produced using AI audio.