Cumulative imported vehicle registrations in South Korea have exceeded 3 million units, as a growing number of customers purchase foreign brands instead of local ones, government data showed Sunday.

The number of imported car registrations had reached 3.17 million, or 12 percent of the country's overall car registrations of 25.46 million, as of the end of November, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

In 2011, the country's import car registrations stood at fewer than 600,000 units, but the figure soared to over 1 million in 2014 and over 2 million in 2018, the ministry said.

Seven out of 10 imported cars sold here are from three German brands -- Volkswagen Group Korea, BMW Group Korea and Mercedes-Benz Korea. (Yonhap)