South Korea's commerce ministry told the media this week that they will provide more than one million eco-friendly cars in the next five years as a form of response to climate change and to foster a new growth regime.
According to eNCA, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of South Korea has been developing a third five-year plan. While doing so, they are also trying to popularize the use of eco-friendly cars which are approved by the cabinet chaired by President Park Geun-hye.
Based from the country's plan, they will increase the number of hybrid electric vehicles to 820,000, electric vehicles to 200,000, plug-in hybrid vehicles to 50,000, and fuel cell electric vehicles to 9,000 by 2020.
Part of the move to respond against climate change, President Park announced that in Jeju Islands, all cars will be electric vehicles replacing the old types of vehicles. This will be the country's first step to "nurture the eco-friendly car industry as new growth regime."
eNCA also added that with the ongoing plans of replacing all the cars in the country to eco-friendly ones, the eco-friendly vehicle market dramatically increased in an average annual rate of 20 percent compared to the past five years.
"It is expected to account for around half of the global auto industry by 2030 amid the expected tighter regulations on greenhouse gas emissions and accelerating development in eco-technology," the source stated.
Aside from nurturing the use of the eco-friendly cars in South Korea, they are taking their time to make this move as popular as possible. The South Korean government plans to spend 150 billion won which is around US$127 million for the next five years' development on competitive eco-friendly car models. This is to satisfy and attract the consumers.
They also stated their plan of recharging the facilities nationwide to accommodate these plans with 1,400 stations for electric vehicles and 80 stations for hydrogen-powered cars in the next five years.
