Increasing Car Tuning, Government Moves to Strengthen Safety Measures

A tuning car is exhibited at the '2019 Auto Salon Week' held at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, last October.
Goyang - Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 15th that the amendment to the 'Enforcement Decree of the Automobile Management Act,' which entrusts tasks such as tuning safety investigation and research, equipment development, and training of tuning specialists to the Korea Transportation Safety Authority to ensure safety in automobile modification (tuning), was passed at the Cabinet meeting.

Since the government announced the 'Automobile Tuning Activation Measures' last year, the tuning market has been continuously growing. This year, until the end of last month, the number of tuning approvals and inspections reached 167,965, an increase of 40,041 cases (31.3%) compared to 127,924 cases during the same period last year.

In particular, camping vehicle tuning has increased 3.5 times, from 1,201 units in the same period last year to 4,209 units by the end of last month, following the regulatory relaxation implemented on February 28. Most of the tuning involved emission reduction devices and connection devices.

The sales of tuning-certified parts also surged. A total of 17,929 parts were sold until the end of last month this year, showing a sharp increase to 4.3 times the 4,076 parts sold throughout last year. LED light sources for headlights accounted for the largest share with 13,100 units sold.

In addition to this trend, as the demand for tuning of future advanced devices is expected to increase, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport decided to entrust tuning safety-related tasks to the Korea Transportation Safety Authority, a specialized tuning institution, to ensure appropriate safety and has been promoting the legislation accordingly.

With this amendment to the enforcement decree, the Korea Transportation Safety Authority will be responsible for tasks related to safety investigation and research of automobile tuning, equipment development, training of automobile tuning specialists, and development and dissemination of tuning-related education programs. Since the Korea Transportation Safety Authority is already performing tasks related to approval, inspection, technical support, and education for tuning, it is expected to effectively carry out entrusted tasks such as safety investigation and personnel training.

Yoon Jin-hwan, Director of Automobile Management at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, "With this amendment to the enforcement decree, we expect to secure appropriate safety in response to the increasing trend of automobile tuning and contribute to the activation of the tuning market."

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