South Korea expands e-mobility budget
The South Korean government will provide a total of 950 billion won (about 627 million euros) in 2020 to subsidise electric cars and expand the network of charging stations in the country, this signifies a 60 per cent increase from 2019.
These figures were released by the Yonhap News Agency with reference to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy. When announcing the new funding for 2020 in September 2019, it said that 738.2 billion won had been earmarked for the purchase premiums for battery electric vehicles and the expansion of the charging infrastructure. Separately from the subsidies for battery electric vehicles, another 359.3 billion won will be added for fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen filling stations.
In addition, 204 billion won (about 156 million euros) will be used to support research and development projects of Korean companies. The government’s declared goal is that by 2030 a quarter of all exported cars will have an environmentally friendly drive system – by 2019 it will be ten per cent. Exports of low or zero-emission cars, including electric and hybrid models, will increase by 25 per cent to 249,000 units in 2019.
To achieve the export target, the government also wants to strengthen the domestic market. Cumulative sales of electric cars in South Korea are expected to exceed the 100,000 mark this year, while hydrogen cars are expected to exceed 15,000 units. “While the global automotive industry is suffering a setback due to growing protectionism and declining demand, the market for environmentally friendly cars is nevertheless growing rapidly,” a ministry official told the news agency.
For 2030, when a quarter of all exported cars are to have an electric drive, the government is already targeting an electric vehicle share of one third for the domestic market. In October South Korea’sPresident Moon Jae-in demanded that Korean companies invest 60 trillion won in new car technologies over the next ten years.
0 Comments