CHAEVI wins government EV fast-charger contracts

CHAEVI's electric vehicle fast-charging station / Courtesy of CHAEVI

CHAEVI, Korea's largest operator of public electric vehicle fast-charging infrastructure, has won two government contracts — one from the Korea Environment Corporation, a public agency under the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, and another from Seoul Energy Corporation, a Seoul city-owned utility.

The K-eco contract designates CHAEVI as the operator for Zone 4 of the 2026 Public EV Fast Charger Manufacturing and Procurement Project, covering the southern regions of Busan, Daegu, Ulsan, South Gyeongsang Province and North Gyeongsang Province.

Under the contract, CHAEVI will manufacture and install 136 standalone 100-kilowatt chargers and 113 simultaneous 200-kW chargers at major transit points across the zone.

Under the Seoul Energy Corporation contract, CHAEVI will install 12 dual-type fast chargers rated at 100 kW and 200 kW, along with eight canopy structures, at public facilities in Seoul by December.

CHAEVI will produce and install approximately 260 public fast chargers in total.

The tender drew attention for its evaluation structure with technical capability worth 90 of 100 points and price accounting for only 10. New criteria this year included the degree of domestic sourcing for key components — a response to global supply chain instability — and a dedicated performance category requiring chargers to meet energy conversion efficiency of at least 95 percent, connector durability of at least 20,000 insertion cycles, and cybersecurity certification under Open Charge Point Protocol 1.6 or higher, all verified by accredited testing bodies. CHAEVI said it met all three requirements.

The procurement assessment also favored companies with a field failure rate of less than 1 percent and average repair time of less than three days.

CHAEVI said its nationwide operating record enabled it to clear those thresholds. Open Charge Point Protocol is an international standard that governs communication between EV chargers and network management systems.

Korea's government has set a target of deploying more than 1.23 million EV chargers nationwide by 2030, including 145,000 fast chargers.

This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.