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| This double-decker electric bus travels between Incheon's Songdo District and Samseong Station in southern Seoul's Gangnam District while carrying up to 71 passengers. It began operating in April 2021. Yonhap |
By Ko Dong-hwan
Fifty-nine taxi, bus and logistics operators in Korea have joined a local business group that agreed to change all their service automobiles to carbon-free vehicles by 2030 in an eco-friendly initiative led by the government.
The group, now consisting of 111 local companies, was launched in March by rental and lease companies, and later joined by more businesses in the manufacturing and financial sectors.
Four logistics companies ― Lotte Global Logistics, CJ Logistics, SK Networks and Hyundai Glovis ― and 55 bus and taxi operators across the country joined the group that agreed to change all their automobiles to electric or hydrogen vehicles by the end of 2030. The announcement was made on May 26 in a ceremony at The-K Hotel Seoul in Gangnam. It was joined by the country's Environment Minister Han Jeoung-ae and representatives from the companies.
The 59 companies currently operate a total of 8,385 vehicles, 458 of which are already carbon-free. Starting with 57 eco-friendly vehicles this year, the four logistics firms plan to buy or rent 800 eco-friendly vehicles by 2025, and 2,500 by 2030. Taxi and bus operators also plan to introduce 380 eco-friendly vehicles this year and expand the number to 2,900 by 2025 and further to 5,900 by 2030.
If those plans are achieved, about 1.29 million vehicles operated by the 111 firms will be either electric or hydrogen vehicles by the end of 2030.
"That is about 33.5 percent of the government's goal of having 3.85 million carbon-free vehicles in the country," a ministry official said.
Bus, taxi and delivery trucks on average travel longer distances per day than privately owned conventional sedans: buses run on average 177 kilometers, taxis run 300km, freight trucks run 129km while privately-owned sedans run 33km, according to the country's 2019 statistics. That's why the service vehicles are more effective in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions when running with carbon-free vehicles as compared to privately-owned vehicles.
Compared to sedans, buses will be 16 times more effective, while taxis and freight trucks rate 4.5 and 2.5 times more effective, respectively, in reducing carbon emissions, the ministry said.
"Those service vehicles mostly run close to people's residential areas and their emissions cause a great deal of air pollution, so the transition to eco-friendly vehicles must be carried out," the official said.
The minister said the government will come up with more preparations to support the firms committed to operating the carbon-free vehicles, such as installing more recharging stations nationwide at public garages for buses and taxies and at logistics depots for delivery trucks, and prioritizing the firms in offering government subsidies needed to buy or rent carbon-free vehicles.
Dubbing the initiative, "Korea's Transition to Non-Polluting Vehicles 100," Han said that "transitioning buses and taxis that are essential for the public to carbon-free vehicles will contribute much to drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions and aerosols that threaten the country's environment and public health."
"I hope the initiative will spread to the rest of our country, as our transportation industry leads this carbon neutralizing movement," Han said.
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