Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport "Significantly Relaxing Regulations to Encourage Production of Unique Automobiles"

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Jiwon] The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) will significantly ease related regulations to enable the production of more distinctive automobiles. Through this, it plans to foster a new automobile industry and market that have not existed in Korea until now.

On the 5th, MOLIT announced that it will publicly notify the partial amendment of the Enforcement Rules of the Automobile Management Act for 40 days starting from the 6th.

The main points of the proposed amendment for public notice include ▲relaxation of criteria for low-volume production vehicles ▲partial exemption from tuning approval with only tuning inspection conducted ▲improvements to the motorcycle tuning system.

First, MOLIT will clarify the criteria for 'low-volume production vehicles' and ease related regulations to support the production of more distinctive automobiles.

Previously, MOLIT introduced a separate certification system for low-volume production vehicles to revitalize the tuning industry, such as handmade sports cars, but it was difficult to meet the certification methods, and there were no certified cases.

Accordingly, MOLIT relaxed the criteria for recognizing low-volume production vehicles from "vehicles produced or assembled in quantities of 100 or fewer" to "vehicles produced or assembled in quantities of 300 or fewer within 3 years."

Considering overseas cases such as Europe, items involving crash and impact tests for low-volume production vehicles will be significantly eased.

MOLIT expects that once the proposed improvements are implemented, an environment for developing diverse and distinctive automobiles will be created, fostering a new automobile industry centered on small and medium-sized enterprises with good technology and ideas.

Additionally, to ease the tuning approval process, MOLIT will exempt approval for some vehicle structures and devices that require tuning approval but are standardized and relatively safe, allowing only tuning inspections.

For motorcycles, tuning of minor structures and devices designated and announced by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, similar to general automobiles, will be excluded from the tuning approval requirement.

Yoon Jin-hwan, Director of the Automobile Policy Division at MOLIT, said, "The Korean automobile market needs to create new growth engines through the activation of the automobile aftermarket, such as tuning," adding, "This regulatory easing will be an opportunity to foster a new automobile industry and market that have not existed in Korea until now."

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