Over 35,000 EV chargers built in Korea in 5 months: report

More than 35,000 new electric vehicle chargers were built nationwide in the first five months of this year, bringing the total number to over 240,000 units, a report showed Sunday, amid the nation’s fast-growing demand for clean transportation.

As of May, 240,695 units of EV chargers were installed nationwide, according to a report from Rep. Park Sang-hyeok of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, citing data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and the Ministry of Environment.

Compared to last year’s 205,205 units, 35,490 new EV chargers were built nationwide over the past five months.

Of the total, standard units with moderate charging speed accounted for 89.4 percent or 215,147 units, while fast chargers accounted for 10.6 percent.

Noting that several carmakers have not disclosed information on charging unit installation in Korea, the actual number of EV chargers is likely to be higher than 240,695 units, sources said.

For instance, a total of 1,730 Tesla Superchargers and Destination Chargers were installed in Korea as of June 1, however, these were not included in the Environment Ministry’s data. Tesla uses the North American Charging Standard, different from most of the chargers installed in Korea, which are DC combo types or a Combined Charging System.

By region, Gyeonggi Province, the region surrounding Seoul, had the highest number of chargers with 60,873 units, followed by Seoul’s 42,619 units. The southeastern Metropolitan cities of Busan and Daegu had 13,370 units and 13,289 units, respectively.

As for the ratio of chargers per EV, the central administrative city of Sejong topped the list reaching 0.85. Seoul and Gyeonggi Province each posted 0.66 and 0.67. Jeju Island showed the lowest figure of 0.28.

On the other hand, the number of hydrogen fueling chargers logged 244 units in the cited period, the report showed. This year, only 15 new chargers were built here.

Following Japan, Kore, is the country with the second-largest number of hydrogen charging stations among the 38 OECD members with 149 units, sources said.

Industry insiders say the country will further expand infrastructure for eco-friendly cars by the end of this year.

In January, the Environment Ministry vowed to install around 80,000 more EV chargers to reach 280,000 units and a total of 320 hydrogen chargers with 91 new devices by the end of the year. The target numbers for electric and hydrogen-powered cars are 670,000 units and 47,000 units, respectively.