SEOUL, May 16 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's car export grew last month on the positive effect from the launch of new models, a government report showed Thursday.

The number of automobiles exported in April was 223,235 units, up 3 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

In terms of value, the auto export increased 5.8 percent over the year to 3.76 billion U.S. dollars last month.

The growth was attributable to robust demand for the newly launched Palisade sports utility vehicle (SUV), produced by the country's top carmaker Hyundai Motor, and another Hyundai compact SUV Kona.

Demand for locally-made vehicles was strong from North America, the European Union (EU) and Africa, while export to the Middle East, Latin America and Asia declined last month.

Auto parts export was almost unchanged at 2.03 billion dollars in April compared with a year earlier.

Helped by the export expansion, auto production gained 5 percent over the year to 371,930 vehicles in April.

The higher working days in the month also made contribution to the car production growth.

Car sales in the domestic market reduced 3.6 percent to 155,027 units in the cited period due to weak demand for foreign luxury vehicles.

Imported car sales tumbled 28.3 percent in April from a year ago.