Jeju Island to get more and better EV infrastructure

Home > Business > Economy

print dictionary print

Jeju Island to get more and better EV infrastructure

Electric vehicle (EV) haven Jeju is about to become even more attractive for battery-powered cars.

The island is adding shared EV charging stations, introducing portable chargers and allowing for the increase in charging station capacity.

According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on Tuesday, Jeju will receive 26.9 billion won ($23.2 million) of support to test the new EV infrastructure from December until November 2023.
Jeju already serves as a test bed for the vehicles after receiving the special designation from the central government in 2011. The island has nearly one-third of all EVs in Korea and hosts more than 14,000 EV charging stations as of May this year.
The new shared charging infrastructure will utilize private charging stations in restaurants and resorts that have previously been closed to the wider public.

According to the ministry, the island has about 10,000 private EV charging stations, which are unused for an average of five days a week. The new platform will allow charging infrastructure companies to commercialize the private stations to allow for use by any EV driver.
It will be similar to a platform operated by U.S.-based EV infrastructure company ChargePoint.

The new regulatory exemptions will also allow for portable EV chargers. The chargers will be put into place to meet charging demand at sites that host temporary events, where installing regular charging stations is difficult. The chargers will make use of batteries.
The Trade Ministry explained that it eased rules to introduce the technology, although safety regulations for portable chargers do not yet exist.

Charging stations rated at 50 kilowatts in Jeju will be able to add an additional 50 kilowatts of capacity.The Trade Ministry explained that the extra capacity will allow for the charging of larger vehicles, such as buses.

The regulatory exemptions fall under the current administration’s plans to expedite growth for the EV industry. The government is targeting the installation of 15,000 fast-charging EV stations across the country by 2025.

BY CHAE YUN-HWAN [chae.yunhwan@joongang.co.kr]
Log in to Twitter or Facebook account to connect
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
help-image Social comment?
s
lock icon

To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.

Standards Board Policy (0/250자)