Becoming Environmentally Friendly Car Power

South Korea’s electric car market is the fifth largest in the world in terms of sales as of last year.
South Korea’s electric car market is the fifth largest in the world in terms of sales as of last year.

South Korea is jumping up to be a leading environmentally friendly car power as the country’s electric vehicle market expanded to the fifth largest in the world and hydrogen powered vehicle to the third largest last year. Nearly 100,000 green cars will be on the roads this year based on the cumulative sales.

The Ministry of Environment said on Jan. 30 that South Korea’s electric car market is the fifth largest in the world in terms of sales as of last year. The sales of electric cars in South Korea came to 29,000 units from January to November last year, followed by China with 385,000 units, the United States with 140,000 units, Norway with 38,000 units, and France with 31,000 units.

The environment ministry said that the sales of electric cars in country reached 32,000 units last year, which was 1.2 times higher than the cumulative sales for the last seven years from 2011 to 2017. A total 57,000 electric cars were currently on the roads in South Korea as of the end of last year after the sales doubled on annual average since 338 units in 2011.

The sales of hydrogen-powered cars quadrupled from past five years between 2013 and 2017 to 712 units in 2018. As of the end of last year, 889 hydrogen-powered cars are on the roads in South Korea, making it the third largest market with 575 units in terms of annual sales from January to November last year after the United States with 2,183 units and Japan with 848 units.

The cumulative sales of environmentally friendly cars are expected to reach 100,000, including 46,000 units of sedans, 1000 units of trucks and 335 units of vans this year.

In addition, the environment ministry will carry forward a hydrogen-powered bus project in seven cities, such as Seoul, Busan and Gwangju. It also plans to boost the number of green cars in South Korea to 500,000 units, including 430,000 units of electric vehicles and 67,000 units of hydrogen-powered cars, by 2022.

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