The South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-Kyun presided a meeting today (18th February) at Hyundai-Kia Motors’ Namyang Research Center and discussed the five-year fourth plan for eco-friendly vehicles. The plan is going to be further discussed in a cabinet meeting.
The government aims to add 2.83 million emission-free cars on its roads by 2025 and increase it to 7.85 million by 2030. It also set a target to make all its cars carbon-neutral by 2050. This year, the government would make it mandatory for all public vehicles purchases to be environmentally friendly to help achieve this goal. Private buyers can be encouraged through financial incentives
To promote hydrogen-powered vehicles, it plans to build 450 hydrogen refuelling stations by 2025. The fuel cell vehicles will be able to reach the nearest hydrogen fuelling station within half an hour. The initial focus would be on Seoul and the metropolitan areas. The government also plan to install 0.5 million electric chargers by 2025.
The prices of environmentally friendly cars are expected to come down by KPW 10 million (US$ 9,000) by 2025. The government also assured its support for exporting the number of eco-friendly vehicles to 830,000 by 2025, increasing from 280,000 last year.