South Korean capital Seoul plans to install more than 100 electric car charging points until the end of this year in an effort to promote use of zero-emission vehicles.
The city, which is also trialing hybrid taxis, launched a partnership with three large Seoul-based retailers to roll out the chargers in supermarkets as well as city government district offices.
Under the agreement, visitors of the Lotte Mart, E-Mart, Home Plus and Bokwang Family Mart stores will be able to recharge their electric cars for free until the end of this year. Both the city government and the businesses, however, agreed to join efforts to extend free EV recharging service in the future and further prioritize electric car drivers.
The city government is working to secure enough parking spaces to accommodate minimum two electric vehicles and at least one charging station at each of Seoul 25 district offices.
Lotte Mart, E-Mart, Home Plus and Bokwang Family Mart stores will all install EV charging points for their customers, while the city’s 25 district offices will install chargers capable of recharging two vehicles at a time.
In order to make electric vehicle charging service available for wider audience, the city government also signed an agreement with the Korea Transportation Safety Authority last year, to manufacture five highway speed electric vehicles.
The electric vehicles can run 180km (111 miles) per charging and its top speed marks at 150km/h (95mph). Once certified by the Korea Transportation Safety Authority, the electric vehicles will be used to monitor and control air pollution in town.
