Small electric cars to hit road in 2017

By Park Jin-hai

The government will conclude its three-year development project to commercialize small electric vehicles by 2017, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Monday.

Under the plan, electric three-wheelers and micro e-cars with price tags of less than 10 million won will be running on the streets in two years.

The ministry recently registered its designs for Micro-Mobility cars with the Korean Intellectual Property Office.

"It's a car of the future. In 10 years, 60 percent of the global population will reside in cities. With the emergence of mega cities, an increasing number of city dwellers will use private transport commuting short distances. This new trend calls for the development of a new form of transport," said a ministry official.

He said as with the cases of France and Japan, where micro e-mobility has been actively used in car-sharing, Korea should also prepare for the future trend.

Micro electric vehicles are cheaper and offer convenient transport for short-distance travel.

Also, because diverse models can be produced in small numbers, it is regarded as ideal for manufacturing customized vehicles for the elderly and disabled.

Currently electric wheelchairs and electric scooters used by those people are exposed to bad weather conditions and because no lane has been allotted for them, they must drive along with other cars on roads.

With the injection of 7 billion won, the ministry launched a consortium with seven other entities, including mid-sized tech firms and ChungAng University, last year and embarked on a three year project to develop battery powered micro vehicles.

The trade ministry will expand the program to include three-wheelers by investing an additional 5 billion won by next year.

The ministry says that it has been cooperating with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to revise the current automobile management act as well.

"Foreign carmakers, including Renault Samsung Motors, that are prepared to import micro electric cars, are calling for the revision. Under the current act, the new cars cannot run on the streets because they are neither two-wheelers nor passenger cars," said the official.

He added that changing the related laws will take some time.

"To have the advantages of the micro e-mobility to the fullest, it means loosening safety standards. However, that could be a major problem in the case of accidents."

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