Seoul, Feb 12 (IANS): South Korea's top automaker Hyundai Motor is widely anticipated to reach accumulated shipments of 100 million units this year since its first sales in 1968, the company said on Monday.

The carmaker sold a total of 97 million units of cars through 2023, including 73 million units sold overseas, according to Hyundai Motor.

Given that the company has set its annual sales target at 4.24 million units for this year, industry watchers predict that the company is poised to achieve a milestone by reaching cumulative sales of 100 million units in 2024, possibly by September.

Hyundai initiated domestic automobile sales in 1968, followed by exports in 1976, reports Yonhap news agency.

So far, the Avante compact was the most popular model with its cumulative sales reaching 15.1 million units, followed by the Accent subcompact with 9.95 million units and the Sonata sedan with 9.39 million units.

Meanwhile, electric cars accounted for 9.3 per cent of newly purchased cars in South Korea last year, data showed on Monday, hovering above that of other major counterparts, including the United States and Japan.

The electric vehicles (EVs) took up 162,507 of 1.74 million cars sold in South Korea in 2023, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

The ratio marked a significant rise from just 1.9 percent tallied in 2019.