Seoul, Sep 8 : Sales of electric vehicles (EVs) in South Korea jumped nearly 50 per cent from a year earlier in the first eight months of the year, helped by the release of new models, data showed on Monday.

According to data from the Korea Automobile & Mobility Association (KAMA), accumulated sales of EVs during the January-August period came to 142,456 units, compared with 95,988 units tallied last year, reports Yonhap news agency.

EVs accounted for 12.7 percent of all cars newly registered in South Korea during the cited period, up 3.8 percentage points from the same period last year, according to KAMA.

The association attributed the sharp increase to the release of new models, including the launch of Tesla's Model Y in May, with Hyundai Motor and its sister company Kia, introducing more affordable EVs as well.

Over the period, sales of locally produced EVs advanced 48.2 percent to 86,777 units, taking up 60.9 percent of the market.

Sales of imported EVs jumped 48.6 percent to 55,679 units, with models produced in China, including Tesla's Model Y, accounting for 69.4 percent of the total, the data showed.

Meanwhile, Kia last week launched the EV5, the company's fifth dedicated electric vehicle (EV), in South Korea, with plans to export the model to Europe and Canada in the near future.

The EV5 is a compact electric sport utility vehicle (SUV) built on Hyundai Motor Group's E-GMP platform. Kia said the South Korean model features design and safety specifications tailored to local consumer needs and regulations, differing from the version introduced earlier in China.

The EV5 will be produced at Kia's Gwangju plant for both the domestic and export markets.

The exterior adopts Kia's "Opposites United" design philosophy, combining the model's boxy body with curved elements. Inside, it offers a spacious passenger space and provides 965 liters of luggage space.

The model is equipped with an 81.4 kilowatt-hour (kWh) nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) battery paired with a 160 kilowatt front-wheel-drive motor.

The EV5 uses batteries supplied by China's CATL, rather than those from South Korean battery makers.

/IANS