Seoul, Dec 22 (IANS) The number of vehicles voluntarily recalled by automakers in South Korea reached an all-time high this year, with nearly 80 percent attributed to domestic giant Hyundai Motor Group, traffic authorities said on Sunday.

A total of 5.12 million units across 1,684 different models were subject to recalls due to defects, according to the Korea Road Traffic Authority. Hyundai Motor and Kia accounted for a combined 4.07 million units, representing 79.2 per cent of the total.

The figure surpasses last year's 1.69 million recalled units and also breaks the previous record of 3.25 million units set in 2022, reports Yonhap news agency.

The recalls were largely driven by manufacturing defects found in several popular models of Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp. under Hyundai Motor Group.

"Since many of the recalls involved popular models, the overall volume naturally increased," said an official from the agency.

Electric vehicles also saw a significant rise this year, with more than 1.2 million units recalled, surpassing 707,088 units in 2021 and 187,560 in 2020.

In March, Hyundai and Kia announced a voluntary recall of nearly 170,000 EVs to address a software error, marking one of the largest single recall cases for EV models to date.

Earlier this month, Hyundai Motor, BMW Korea and three other carmakers voluntarily recalled nearly 300,000 vehicles due to faulty components.

The five companies, including Kia Corp., Honda Korea and Mercedes-Benz Korea, are recalling a total of 298,721 units of 84 different models.

Last month, Kia, Ford Sales and Service Korea and two other carmakers voluntarily recalled more than 58,000 vehicles due to faulty components.

The four companies, including Renault Korea Motors and Stellantis Korea, are recalling an overall 58,180 units of five different models, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said.

Stellantis is a 50:50 joint company set up in 2021 through the merger of U.S. carmaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. and French automaker PSA Groupe. It sells Jeep and Peugeot models in Korea.

Courtesy Media Group: IANS

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