The government finalized this year's electric vehicle chargersupply budget at 60.5 billion won, and will begin their supply business from the 2nd of this month.
 
The controversially expensive subsidy for slow chargers (11kW class) dropped from 2.5 million won to 1.6 million won. It will also improve service quality by shifting subsidies from a first-come, first-serve basis to an evaluation system for the first time in eight years. The government plans on supplying more than 30,000 units this year, twice as many as last year.

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The Ministry of Environment announced on the 1st that it would carry outa project to supplyEV slow chargers (7·11㎾) to the public from the 2nd to the 27th. The subsidy budget this year was 60.5 billion won, more than double last year's budget of 24 billion won. 33 supply companies registered by the Ministry of Environment will compete.
 
The government followed their initial plans of loweringsubsidies for 7kW slow chargers from 2 million won to an average of 1.3 million wonlast year. However, subsidies for the 11kW charger, which werenewly established this year, were lowered from 2.5 million won, the initially proposed amount by the government, to an average of 1.6 million won. Unlike the 7kW products, where operators have to bear some costs such as installation construction costs, more than 500,000 won in subsidies remain even if installation construction costs are included, which is grabbing attention as a means to nab extra profits.

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The subsidizing method will also change for the first time in eight years. The Ministry of Environment has changed from providing subsidies on a first-come, first-served basis after a business operator submitted an application that confirmed the location of the chargerinstallation site, to a system that evaluates the services and maintenance capabilities of the company after receiving the application. After the evaluation, the government plans to divide the ratings by company, and allocate supply quantities differently. It is different from the past, when government projects were closed within 3-4 days from the date of receipt of the subsidy application. The government expects 25 of the 33 registered business operatorswould be selected. Companies with poor performances or found to have faulty or lacking infrastructure will be excluded.
 
An official from the Ministry of Environment said, "We have improved the charger supply policy from a first-come-first-served basis, to foster a better environment to use electric vehicles and to maximize the efficacy of national subsidies," adding, "Service quality and follow-up management is expected to improve as subsidy and business qualification problems continue."

By staff reporter Tae-joon Park (gaius@etnews.com)