Seoul City Launches Second Phase of Electric Taxi Deployment with 200 Vehicles... Up to 18 Million Won Support

Additional 6 Million KRW Purchase Subsidy for Electric Passenger Cars Compared to Regular Ones... Online Applications Open from the 26th

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government is recruiting individual and corporate taxi operators to participate in the second phase of the eco-friendly electric taxi distribution project.

On the 24th, Seoul announced that following the distribution of 100 electric taxis through the first public offering conducted in February, applications for the second phase distribution of 200 vehicles will be accepted starting from the 26th. The subsidy amount remains the same as the first phase, with purchase subsidies varying according to vehicle price and performance. High-priced vehicles over 90 million KRW are excluded from subsidy support, while vehicles priced under 60 million KRW receive the maximum subsidy.

Additionally, since taxis travel 7 to 13 times farther daily than regular passenger cars, replacing them with electric vehicles has a significant greenhouse gas reduction effect. Therefore, a subsidy up to 18 million KRW, which is 6 million KRW more than that for regular passenger cars, is provided.

Seoul started distributing electric taxis with 60 vehicles in 2015 and had supplied a total of 1,135 electric taxis by April 2021. Upon completion of this second phase, a total of 1,335 electric taxis will have been distributed.

For electric taxis, the individual taxi quota system was lifted in November last year, allowing taxis to operate every day of the week. Accordingly, the activation of eco-friendly taxi distribution such as electric taxis is expected to lead proactive responses to the climate crisis.

Baek Ho, Director of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Urban Transportation Office, said, “Thanks to the strong response from taxi operators to eco-friendly electric taxis, the first phase was successfully completed, and we hope for great interest in the second phase as well. We will continue to promote the distribution of electric taxis to expand the supply of zero-emission vehicles.”

Applications for participation in the electric taxi distribution project and subsidy requests will be accepted online through the Ministry of Environment’s Low Emission Vehicle Integrated Website starting from the 26th. More detailed information can be found on the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s website after the 26th.

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