[단독] Hyundai to build electric vehicle charging stations in Euljiro and Songdo

Hyundai Motor Company will build an electric vehicle fast charging station in Euljiro, Jung-gu, Seoul within this year. Including this, electric vehicle charging stations will be opened in a total of 20 locations, including 8 city centers and 12 highway rest areas across the country, significantly eliminating the inconvenience of general electric vehicle drivers. The launch of new electric vehicles is expected to be released this year, but the electric vehicle infrastructure is far short, so Hyundai Motor Company has taken off its own steps to solve related problems.

According to the industry on the 24th, it was confirmed that Hyundai Motor Company has secured a site in a building in Euljiro, Jung-gu, Seoul, as one of the eight electric vehicle charging stations in the city center to be built this year, and started preparing for the related license and construction. Currently, Center One Building in Suha-dong, Jung-gu is considered a prominent place.

On the 21st, Hyundai Motor Company opened the first private electric vehicle charging station in Korea,’Hyundai EV Station Gangdong,’ at SK gas station in Gil-dong, Gangdong-gu, Seoul. However, this is different from the eight charging stations in the city center that Hyundai Motor Company is pursuing because it was prepared by tearing down the existing gas station together with SK Networks. Hyundai Motor Company plans to build a new urban charging station after securing the land by directly purchasing or leasing it. It is known that the location of the 7 charging stations in the rest of the city besides Euljiro is Incheon Songdo, Suwon Gwanggyo, Daejeon, Daegu, Pohang, Busan, and Jeju. In the case of Songdo and Busan, Incheon, plans are under consideration to prepare them in large shopping malls or exhibition and convention centers.

Among the highway rest areas, 12 sites were currently selected and licensed and ready for construction. Hyundai Motor Company plans to install a total of 120 fast chargers (high chargers) for electric vehicles, 6 units each at 20 charging stations in downtown and highway rest areas.

Among the’Hyundai Motor Studios’, a vehicle exhibition and test drive space, Hyundai Motor Company is already operating a total of six high chargers, including two in Goyang, one in Daegu, two in Jeju, and one in Pohang. In addition, if the 8 units introduced at the EV station Gangdong from the 21st and an additional 120 units in the city center and highway rest areas are combined, a total of 134 electric vehicle chargers operated by Hyundai will increase significantly within this year.

Of course, by the end of this year, there is a high possibility that there will be more. This is because Hyundai Motor Company has the door wide open even when converting an existing gas station into an electric vehicle charging station like EV station Gangdong. An official from Hyundai Motor said, “As if the EV station was built in Gil-dong in cooperation with SK, we can negotiate with other gas station operators such as GS Caltex, Hyundai Oilbank, S-Oil, and even private gas station operators to change the existing gas station into an electric vehicle charging station.” Said.

The Hyundai Motor Group announced at the end of last year, through the new electric vehicle platform’E-GMP’ (Electric-Global Modular Platform), this year’s Hyundai Motor Company’s’Ioniq 5′, Kia’s’CV’ (hereafter project name), and Genesis’JW’. Will be released one after another. This year, Tesla, the world’s No. 1 electric vehicle industry, is also planning to release a new electric vehicle’Model Y’in Korea, so the domestic electric vehicle market is expected to grow faster than ever. However, the shortage of charging stations is regarded as the biggest obstacle to the growth of the electric vehicle market. According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Automobile Research Institute, the number of chargers per 100 electric vehicles in Korea continued to decrease from 59.7 units at the end of 2017 to 50.1 units at the end of August last year. Lee Hang-gu, a senior research fellow at the Korea Automobile Research Institute, said, “Because electric vehicle charging stations are somewhat less profitable than existing gas stations, automakers that produce electric vehicles have no choice but to build charging stations.”

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