Ioniq 5 gusts, fire fell on the foot of Hyundai

With the surge in electric vehicle sales, whether or not the charging facility is sufficient is on the verge of controversy.

According to Hyundai Motor Company on the 27th, the number of contracts reached 23,760 units only on the 25th, which is the first day of the pre-contract for the first exclusive electric vehicle’Ioniq 5′. This is a huge number considering that the number of electric vehicles registered until last year is 13,4962. In the future, if the sales boom of IONIQ 5 continues and the charging facilities are not sufficiently expanded, there may be a charging riot among consumers. Accordingly, Hyundai Motor Company decided to focus on expanding its own rapid charger in line with the favorable pre-contract for Ioniq 5. Hyundai Motors said, “We are planning to build 120 fast chargers nationwide this year, and we plan to increase them further in the future.”

Tesla, which sold more than 10,000 electric vehicles last year, is also accelerating the expansion of its charging and service infrastructure. It is planning to install supercharger stations, which are exclusive charging facilities, in 27 locations across the country this year. In the first half of the year, we are preparing to release the CCS1 charging adapter so that Tesla models can be charged at public fast charging stations.

The number of chargers installed until last year reached 6,4188 units nationwide, and the ratio of electric vehicles per charger is about 2.2. The government previously cited the result of a study by the Korea Transportation Research Institute in 2019 that the electric vehicle-to-charger ratio was appropriate to be 2:1, citing that the current charging facilities were sufficient.

However, with the explosive increase in the number of electric vehicles, expansion of charging facilities is expected to be indispensable. In particular, the current arithmetically, one device can be used per two units, but half of them are private chargers installed in specific facilities, buildings, and apartments, which are not available to the public. It is an urgent situation. There is also frequent friction among electric vehicle users over the use of charging facilities. It is not easy to crack down on charging obstruction at every moment, so there are many cases where vehicles that have been charged are parked at the charging stations that consumers have sought.

At the recent innovation growth promotion meeting, the government decided to expand electric vehicle chargers centering on living bases such as residences and workplaces through the revision of the Eco-friendly Vehicle Act and the Enforcement Decree. In the case of new buildings, the mandatory installation ratio of chargers will be increased 10 times from the current 0.5% to 5% in 2022, and the opening of public charging facilities operated by local governments and public institutions will be mandatory.

[서동철 기자]
[ⓒ 매일경제 & mk.co.kr, 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]