The total number of vehicles licensed in Seoul last year saw a decrease for the first time in seven years while the number of eco-friendly cars increased, government data showed Thursday. 

The number of vehicles registered in Seoul stood at 3.12 million last year, down 0.02 percentage point from a year earlier, according to the statistics from the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

The number of hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles and hydrogen vehicles in Seoul skyrocketed by 21 percent, 56 percent and 613 percent, respectively, last year from the previous year.

The majority of vehicles registered in Seoul were gasoline-fueled cars (51.47 percent), followed by diesel cars (35.91 percent), LPG cars (8.71 percent), hybrid cars (2.93 percent), hydrogen and electric cars (0.49 percent) and CNG cars (0.3 percent).

By district, the largest number of cars was registered in Songpa with 240,559 (87.7 percent), followed by Gangnam with 235,415 (7.54 percent).

The nation’s other 16 regions (cities and provinces) saw increases in the number of vehicles registered, ranging from 0.5 percent to 10.5 percent.

(laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)