Hyundai to build 500 ultra-fast EV chargers by next year

On Sunday, Hyundai Motor Group announced its plans to expand its electric vehicle high-speed charging service, known as 'E-pit,' to 500 units by next year. Since its inception in April 2021, 286 units have been established and are currently operational across 54 locations nationwide.

Within E-pit, a charger with a maximum output of 350 kW (kilowatts) is installed. Hyundai Motor Company's electric sports utility vehicle (SUV), the Ioniq 5, requires approximately 18 minutes to charge the battery from 10% to 80%. Hyundai Motor Group oversees E-Fit operations 24 hours a day, throughout the entire year. Consequently, the 'suspension rate' from the previous year, denoting the time when charging is unavailable, has been halved to 3%.

Furthermore, in December of last year, Hyundai Motor Group introduced the 'E-pit Pass,' a membership service enabling charging at affiliated stations beyond E-pit, all for a membership fee equivalent to that of each charging service provider. During the latter half of this year, Hyundai Motor Group aims to broaden its collaborations, enabling E-pit Pass usage at approximately 260,000 chargers, which constitutes about 85% of all chargers in Korea.

In addition to E-pit, the group intends to deploy 3,000 ultra-fast chargers via its subsidiary, Korea Electric Vehicle Charging Service, and 20,000 slow chargers through Hyundai Engineering by 2025.


한재희 hee@donga.com