EV chargers in public facilities to become available for the public

Electric vehicle (EV) chargers installed in public facilities, such as district offices, will become available for the general public. The regulation to limit EV charging facilities to 20 percent of a parking lot will also be abolished. The new measures are intended to increase EV charging facilities and boost the use of environment-friendly cars.

Minister of Economy and Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki held a meeting on Big 3 innovations and growth at the office of the Export-Import Bank Of Korea on Thursday and announced key deregulation plans to boost the use of environment-friendly cars.

First of all, the government will mandate all public facilities to make their EV chargers available to the general public. Now, EV users will be able to stop by a public facility to charge their cars. In addition, the regulation that prohibits the area where EV chargers are installed from exceeding 20 percent of a parking lot will be removed, which enables the entirety of a parking lot to have EV chargers installed.

A measure to limit parking in an EV charging area to maximum of 12 hours will be also put forward to resolve EV users’ inconvenience of being unable to find an empty charging spot. The regulation to only allow car maintenance facilities with equipment for internal combustion engine vehicles will be also revised to encourage the opening of EV-specialized repair shops.

“As the competition among countries in the EV market is intensifying, the government will do its best to deregulate and address relevant challenges,” said Deputy Prime Minister Hong.


Choong-Hyun Song balgun@donga.com