No. of registered cars exceeds 12 mil. last year

The era of "one household, one car" should be realized sometime in the first quarter of this year.

The number of cars registered in Korea surpassed 12.05 million at the end of last year, nearly equal to the nation's 12.211 million households with one of more family members, the National Statistical Office (NSO) said.

The Ministry of Construction and Transportation said Saturday that the number of registered vehicles in the country came to 12,059,276 at the end of 2000, up 8% from 11,163,000 units in 1999. Since 1997, when the number of registered cars exceeded the 10 million mark, the figure has increased by more than 2 million.

If the trend continues, the figure is expected to break the 12.21 million barrier by the end of March.

By region, there were 2,847,000 registered vehicles in Kyonggi Province (20.9%), 2,444,000 in Seoul (20.2%), and 648,000 in Inchon (5.4%). Metropolitan areas accounted for 46.2% of all registered vehicles.

By type of vehicle, passenger cars topped the list with 8,084,000 (67.1%), followed by vans or pick up trucks with 2,511,000 (20.8%), buses & four-wheel drive vehicles with 1,427,000 (11.8%), and specially designed cars with 37,000 (0.3%). The number of buses and four-wheel drive vehicles increased by 434,000 (43.7%) thanks to a rise in the number of LPG vehicles for leisure use.

Privately owned cars numbered 11,389,000 (94.4%), followed by company vehicles with 620,000 units (5.2%) and official vehicles with 50,000 units (0.4%).

Exports of used cars reached 88,655 units last year, surpassing the 80,000 mark for the third consecutive year.

Koo Ja-Ryong bonhong@donga.com