South Korea’s six main vehicle manufacturers increased their exports 20% to 2.76m vehicles in 2023, the highest level in eight years, according to the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association (KAMA).

Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors, GM Korea, Renault Korea, KG Mobility and Tata Daewoo exported to 196 countries last year. The biggest single market was the US (1.3m vehicles) followed by Canada (218,700), Australia (169,200) and Germany (92,700).

Exports to Russia plunged 94% to 800 last year with the country under strict trade sanctions due to its invasion of Ukraine.

Separate Hyundai Motor data showed overseas factory sales of 2.35m last year with India the biggest overseas production location with 766,000 units.

Kia said overseas factory sales grew 5% to 1.45m units led by US volume of 357,000.