Eco-friendly cars' sales cross 100,000

Seoul: Sales of eco-friendly cars surpassed 100,000 units in the first quarter in South Korea on booming demand for hybrid vehicles, industry data showed on Sunday.

A total of 101,727 environment-friendly cars made by five South Korean carmakers, including Hyundai Motor and Kia, were sold during the January-March period, up 8.7 per cent from a year earlier, according to the data.

Out of this total, 85,828 units, or 84.4 per cent, were hybrid cars, soaring 42.4 per cent from the same period last year, reports Yonhap news agency.

Sales of electric vehicles, meanwhile, plunged 51.4 per cent on-year to 15,237 units in the first quarter.

There has been a global slowdown in EV sales.