Full-scale Promotion of Korean-style Hydrogen Bus Charging Station Demonstration Project... Increasing Parts Localization Rate to 80%

Ministry of Industry to Invest 19.7 Billion KRW by 2023
"Component Localization Rate to Rise from 30% to 80%"

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The government is set to actively promote a domestic demonstration project for hydrogen bus charging stations. The plan aims to increase the number of charging stations and raise the localization rate of components.

On the 22nd, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced that it will publicly announce the new recruitment plan for the "Hydrogen Bus Charging Station Demonstration Project" for this year on the 23rd.

The project will be implemented to establish and operate various types of charging stations to secure a Korean-style hydrogen charging station model and increase the localization rate of components.

The Ministry plans to invest a total of 19.7 billion KRW in the project over the next four years, including 10 billion KRW in government funds.

First, two types of hydrogen charging stations will be built by combining charging facilities of 350 bar and 700 bar.

They plan to demonstrate energy consumption and bus route operation patterns to develop an optimized hydrogen bus charging method.

Currently, charging stations are designed for a single 700 bar charging method suitable for hydrogen passenger cars and for small-capacity charging.

The hydrogen charging amount per facility for hydrogen buses is about 50 kg/h, which is roughly twice the approximately 25 kg/h required for hydrogen passenger cars.

The Ministry judged that charging hydrogen buses in various ways according to bus route length and the number of operating vehicles has limitations in terms of efficiency and cost. Also, 100% charging is not possible with 350 bar facilities. This is why an optimal mixed model is needed.

By the end of the project in 2023, the localization rate of hydrogen bus charging station components is expected to increase from the current level of 30% (based on cost) to 80%.

The goal of the project is to apply domestically developed components and directly demonstrate them to secure reliability in performance.

The Ministry plans to gradually utilize the verified components and facilities from the project in the hydrogen bus charging station distribution business.

This year, they plan to distribute 195 hydrogen buses and 18 hydrogen bus charging stations. The Ministry expects the distribution of hydrogen buses to gradually increase.

They also plan to promote linkage with existing projects such as the "Small-scale Hydrogen Extraction Facility Construction Project," which will be announced on the 24th.

The project announcement will be posted on the Ministry and Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology websites starting from the 23rd. Applications will be accepted until the 22nd of next month, and the final project participants will be selected in May.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.