Seoul, Dec 1 (IANS): The number of registered hybrid vehicles is on track to surpass 2 million this year for the first time in the country, data showed on Sunday.

As of October, the number of registered hybrid vehicles in South Korea reached 1,925,001, according to the data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

The total number of registrations is expected to exceed 2 million before the year's end should the current monthly pace of 40,000 new additions be maintained over the final two months, the data indicated, reports Yonhap news agency.

Since their local introduction in 2008, hybrid vehicle registrations have steadily increased, breaching the 500,000 mark in 2019, 1 million in 2022 and 1.5 million last year, according to the ministry.

Driven by the expansion, the combined share of environmentally friendly vehicles, including electronic, hydrogen and hybrid cars, reached 10 percent of total vehicle registrations in October, marking the first-ever double-digit reading.

As of October, there were 661,141 registered electric cars and 37,443 registered hydrogen ones.

The combined share of environmentally friendly cars stood at just 0.9 per cent in 2015 but had since grown rapidly to reach 5 per cent in 2022.

Meanwhile, South Korea's car exports rose 5.5 per cent on-year in October to reach a new record, driven by the global popularity of eco-friendly models, including hybrid vehicles.

The combined value of vehicle shipments reached $6.2 billion last month, marking the highest amount for any October, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The number of cars shipped totalled 243,367, up 8.1 per cent from a year earlier, the report showed. Shipments of hybrid cars alone amounted to $1.1 billion, soaring 80.3 per cent on-year to surpass the previous record of $1.07 billion set in August.