Car sales in South Korea grew 5 percent in November as automakers ramped up their marketing and promotion drive to lure more customers that resulted in expanded sales at home and abroad, industry data showed Tuesday.

The combined sales of five automakers in the country came to 822,481 units last month, compared with the 783,189 units tallied a year earlier, according to data provided by each company.

The November sales growth followed an 8.7-percent gain reported for October.

The five are Hyundai Motor Co., Kia Motors Corp., GM Korea Co., Renault Samsung Motors Co. and Ssangyong Motor Co. The figures excluded complete knockdown kits that are assembled abroad.

"The effect of newly launched vehicle models and the special tax cut which will expire at the end of this year drove up sales especially in the domestic market," said Seo Sang-moon, an analyst at Korea Investment & Securities.

"Overseas markets did not grow as strong as demand remained weak in emerging markets including Russia," he added The data showed that domestic sales of the five automakers jumped 11.6 percent on-year to 141,711 units, while overseas shipments also grew 3.7 percent to 680,770 units.

Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors, the two leading carmakers based in Korea, beat the average market performance. Their combined sales rose 5.6 percent on-year to 738,141 units.

The two auto giants fared better in the domestic market with their auto sales here growing almost 15 percent. Their exports also expanded 4.1 percent.

During the January-November period, Hyundai and Kia sold a total of 7,191,868 units, down 0.8 percent from the same period a year earlier.

To meet their annual sales target of 8.2 million units, however, they will have to sell around 1 million cars in December, which market watchers see as "unrealistic."

Ssangyong Motor, the smallest carmaker owned by India's auto giant Mahindra & Mahindra, also fared well.

Its domestic sales surged 56 percent on-year in November, driven mostly by strong demand for its popular Tivoli sport utility vehicle, more than offsetting a 20.1 percent decline in overseas markets.

GM Korea and Renault Samsung Motors both posted disappointing numbers, with their November sales shrinking 2.2 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, the cumulative sales of the five automakers during the January-November period totaled around 8.1 million, down 0.1 percent from a year earlier, the data showed. (Yonhap)