This file photo shows Hyundai's car assembly plant in Asan, South Chungcheong Province. Courtesy of Hyundai Motor

The number of vehicles voluntarily recalled by automakers in South Korea reached an all-time high this year, with nearly 80 percent attributed to domestic giant Hyundai Motor Group, traffic authorities said Sunday.

A total of 5.12 million units across 1,684 different models were subject to recalls due to defects, according to the Korea Road Traffic Authority. Hyundai Motor and Kia accounted for a combined 4.07 million units, representing 79.2 percent of the total.

The figure surpasses last year's 1.69 million recalled units and also breaks the previous record of 3.25 million units set in 2022.

The recalls were largely driven by manufacturing defects found in several popular models of Hyundai Motor and Kia under Hyundai Motor Group.

"Since many of the recalls involved popular models, the overall volume naturally increased," said an official from the agency.

Electric vehicles also saw a significant rise this year, with more than 1.2 million units recalled, surpassing 707,088 units in 2021 and 187,560 in 2020.

In March, Hyundai and Kia announced a voluntary recall of nearly 170,000 EVs to address a software error, marking one of the largest single recall cases for EV models to date. (Yonhap)