People work at the Cangzhou plant of the Beijing Hyundai company in Cangzhou City, north China's Hebei Province, Nov. 15, 2019. Beijing Hyundai plant in Cangzhou, the first plant of the Hyundai company outside Beijing, was put into operation in October of 2016. By this October, the plant has produced and sold over 430,000 cars and made an output value of 34 billion yuan (about 4.85 billion US dollars). (Photo: Xinhua)

South Korean automakers' global car sale posted a double-digit fall last year due to weak global demand, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, industry data showed Monday.

Five local carmakers, including Hyundai, Kia, GM Korea, Renault Samsung and Sssangyong, sold a total of 6,942,886 vehicles in 2020, down 12.4 percent from the previous year.

The number of vehicles sold at home increased 4.8 percent over the year to 1,607,035 last year owing to temporary tax cut for car purchase as well as the launch of new models.

Automotive export by the five automakers tumbled 16.5 percent to 5,335,851 units amid an economic fallout from the pandemic.

The country's biggest automaker Hyundai Motor sold 787,854 vehicles at home and 2,955,660 units overseas each in 2020. Hyundai's domestic car sale expanded 6.2 percent, but its automotive export plunged 19.8 percent.

Kia Motors, affiliated with Hyundai, sold 552,400 units at home and 2,054,937 units abroad respectively last year. Its local car sale gained 6.2 percent, but the auto export reduced 8.7 percent.

Ssangyong's global car sale dropped 20.6 percent in 2020 from a year earlier, while those for GM Korea and Renault Samsung retreated 11.7 percent and 34.5 percent respectively.