Other Automakers Required to Attain 4%
The Korean government will require automakers to raise the share of pollution-free cars in their car sales in a bid to increase the number of pollution-free cars sold this year to 300,000 units.
As a result, Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp. will be required to increase the proportion of electric vehicles or hydrogen-electric vehicles in their new car sales this year to over 10 percent. For other carmakers, Korean and foreign, pollution-free cars should account for more than 4 percent of their new car sales.
The government’s move, coupled with its aggressive subsidy policy for electric and hydrogen vehicles, is expected to sharply expand the supply of electric and hydrogen electric vehicles in the public and private sectors in 2021.
According to the government and related industries on Feb. 18, automakers with annual sales of more than 20,000 cars in Korea will be subject to the new policy initiative. They include five producers of finished cars in Korea and German and Japanese automakers selling cars in Korea.
The supply target has been set at 10 percent for 2021 and 12 percent for 2022 for Hyundai Motor and Kia, and 4 percent in 2021 and 8 percent in 2022 for GM Korea, Renault Samsung, SsangYong Motor, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Toyota, and Audi Volkswagen. If an automaker fails to meet its target, it will be obliged to pay a contribution beginning in 2023. The contribution will correspond to 1 percent or less of its sales.