▲Kim Kyung-mi, Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, is making an announcement.

Difficulty in securing charging facility site… “Accessibility considerations were limited”
Promoting service convenience solutions such as minimizing breakdowns and improving payment methods

The Ministry of Environment will continue to take proactive steps, including expanding electric vehicle charging infrastructure and improving regulations, to resolve the problem of inconvenient charging, a major obstacle to expanding the use of electric vehicles.

At the '2023 Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Industry Conference' held at the conference hall of the Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Industry Exhibition on the 3rd, Secretary Kim Kyung-mi of the Ministry of Environment announced the 'Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Expansion and Safety Enhancement Plan' prepared by the relevant ministries, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and the National Fire Agency at the meeting of ministers on current issues chaired by the Prime Minister on June 29th.

The Ministry of Environment said that it recognized through a survey that the installation of charging stations and safety issues such as electric vehicle fires are major considerations when purchasing electric vehicles, and that it is carefully reviewing the issue, judging that the inconvenience of charging will be a significant obstacle to the spread of electric vehicles.

As of 2022, there are about 240,000 chargers (about 25,000 rapid chargers and 215,000 slow chargers) and 470,000 electric vehicles. Korea has about two electric vehicles per charger, which is a very good figure compared to the global average of 10 (13 in Europe and 8 in China).

The Ministry of Environment explained that the reason for the continued inconvenience to electric vehicle users was that due to problems in securing land for installing chargers, they were mainly distributed in public facilities, making it difficult to consider accessibility, etc.

He also said that he was aware that in apartments, the lack of electricity supply makes it difficult to install chargers, leading to a shortage of supply, and that there are conflicts among truck owners at highway rest areas due to a lack of chargers.

Secretary Kim said, “In the roadmap for establishing charging infrastructure, we have set a goal of supplying more than 1.23 million chargers by 2030, and have specifically set goals for slow, rapid, and location-specific charging stations for 2025 and 2027, and we will implement them,” adding, “The Ministry of Environment plans to monitor the number of electric vehicles supplied and the supply of chargers and make adjustments to suit reality while striving to achieve the goal.”

Based on the above goals, the Ministry of Environment is pursuing tasks such as △ accessibility by building charging facilities in the right place at the right time, and △ convenience by improving the quality of charging services to achieve the popularization of electric vehicles.

In terms of accessibility, we plan to focus on installing slow chargers in residential and other living centers and workplaces, and fast chargers in transportation centers such as highway rest areas and gas stations along national roads. We also plan to increase the mandatory charger installation rate in new apartment complexes from 5% to 10% by 2025, and consider gradually increasing it in consideration of future trends in the spread of electric vehicles.

The Ministry of Environment said it is reviewing a plan to expand the capacity of underground power supply facilities to make it easier to install 600kW or higher chargers at highway charging stations, which are currently standardized to 500kW. It also said it is improving regulations for the pre-appointment of electrical safety managers from 1 per 60 locations to 1 per 120 locations when remotely monitoring and controlling electrical equipment at charging facilities.

In addition, the Ministry of Environment is operating gas stations and LPG charging stations. We plan to transform it into an 'energy super station' by installing distributed energy sources such as solar power and fuel cells, including electric vehicle chargers.

For areas with insufficient power, such as old apartments, a power distribution technology that allows chargers to automatically adjust the amount of power needed to charge electric vehicles during times when the building's power usage is low without increasing power facilities will be introduced from the second half of 2023.

In addition, in areas where it is difficult to install chargers or where the demand for charging suddenly increases, we are moving to solve the problem with mobile chargers.

Based on the results of the pilot service conducted during the Lunar New Year holiday period in 2023, we plan to distribute large-capacity mobile chargers starting in 2024.

Representative new charging technologies include wireless charging and charging technology using intelligent robots.

We are conducting a demonstration of wireless charging for delivery vehicles and buses, and are working to enable efficient charging by utilizing break times and delivery loading and unloading times.

In terms of improving the quality of charging services related to convenience, the Ministry of Environment focused on minimizing breakdowns and improving payment methods.

Secretary Kim said, “We are making efforts to select excellent products to minimize breakdowns and to give priority to supplying chargers that have been proven to be excellent in terms of safety and durability in addition to various certifications.”

A representative example is the 'Quality Improvement Council', which is comprised of the Automobile Environmental Association, the Ministry of Environment, charger manufacturers, electric vehicle manufacturers, and experts, where technical information such as analysis of causes of charger failures and solutions are exchanged.

In addition, in preparation for natural disasters such as heavy rain, an emergency response T/F is operated, and examples include pre-inspection of charging facilities at risk of flooding, and response in case of breakdown.

The Ministry of Environment has different regulations for each charging service provider to improve the quality of charging services. In order to unify the inconvenience caused by membership cards, a 'roaming' system is being introduced to allow the use of multiple chargers with one card.

As the charging market is transitioning to a profitable structure, the Ministry of Environment plans to gradually sell off about 7,000 public rapid chargers to the private sector in order to strengthen the competitiveness of private charging services. It also includes provisions to have the public sector continue to operate chargers with low profits to avoid damage to the private sector.

The Ministry of Environment plans to support companies by providing customized support for each stage of their growth, including consulting on establishing overseas expansion strategies and hosting investment consultation sessions for inviting buyers, in order to strengthen export competitiveness. It also plans to provide funds, such as future environmental industry development loans, to companies struggling to secure funds.

Secretary Kim Kyung-mi said that with regard to subsidies for charging business operators, support for rapid chargers has ended in 2023, and about 50% of slow chargers remain, so she hopes they will actively utilize them.

He continued, “We are planning to provide subsidies by considering factors such as the level of competitiveness in the private sector,” and “The Ministry of Environment will do its best to secure as much of the 2024 budget as possible to provide subsidies.”