By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter
Daejeon may launch the use of hybrid buses running on ``recharging roads'' as the city's public transportation in the near future.
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) conducted a test drive of the On Line Electric Vehicle (OLEV) in the city Thursday for commercialization.
OLEVs can run without having to be recharged, passing over certain tracks under which power coils are buried.
The buses are provided electricity while running on the roads through a magnetic device attached to them. They are highly competitive in terms of price as their batteries are used only for emergencies, and are one-fifth the size of existing electric vehicles.
The move is expected to be a huge turning point in the mass production of electric vehicles.
Products unveiled so far have had technical problems as they are heavy, pricey and short in mileage. They were also said to be inconvenient as they required recharging stations and took a long time to recharge.
KAIST said it is close to being able to churn out the hybrid buses after having succeeding in equipping them with devices for power supply and storage developed by the state-financed school. It established a company for the business in February.
When commercialized, operation of the electric buses will be launched in Daejeon first, it added. The institute signed a memorandum of understanding with the Daejeon government for the pilot project. Under the contract, the two parties will cooperate in standardizing core technologies for the buses.
Prof. Cho Dong-ho, the chief of KAIST's OLEV project team, said the development of the vehicles will generate significant economic effects.
``The project is expected to bring Korea profits up to 79.4 trillion won ($64.1 billion) over the next 30 years,'' Cho said.
The project came as the Korean government is gearing up for efforts to press on with its ``low carbon, green growth'' agenda. Cheong Wa Dae plans to spend a total of 107 trillion won between 2009 and 2013 to support and promote eco-friendly technologies.