Even Without Subsidies or Benefits, 'Spotlight'... Imported Luxury Electric Cars Are Also Coming

Porsche's pure electric vehicle Taycan Turbo S

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] Following last year, electric vehicle (EV) subsidies are expected to be depleted early again this year, while high-priced electric vehicles that do not qualify for subsidy benefits are being released one after another, heating up the market.

According to the Ministry of Environment, the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association, and other industry sources on the 23rd, as of the 10th of this month, the subsidy application rates for electric vehicles by local governments were 81.5% in Seoul, 59.5% in Busan, and 52.6% and 50.2% in Sejong and Gwangju, respectively. In Seoul’s case, the EV subsidies are showing signs of being exhausted well before the first half of the year ends. Accordingly, the Ministry of Environment and local governments are pushing plans to secure additional local government funds through supplementary budgets or to expand the scale of public offerings.

The early depletion of EV subsidies is analyzed to be due to the wider range of choices available with the release of new domestic dedicated electric vehicles such as Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 and Kia’s EV6, in addition to Tesla. Although the government and local governments differentiated subsidy support brackets to lower EV prices this year and decided not to provide subsidies for vehicles exceeding 90 million KRW, Hyundai and Kia expanded the range of choices by launching dedicated electric vehicles in the first half of this year.

However, imported car brands that launched electric vehicles in Korea last year are apparently expanding the market by announcing they will continue to release high-performance electric vehicles even without subsidy benefits. From the beginning of this year until last month, 4,351 imported electric vehicles (excluding Chevrolet, including Tesla) were sold domestically, a slight increase of about 2% compared to the same period last year (4,264 units). Tesla’s sales decreased by 18.8% last year, but sales of electric vehicles from other imported car brands increased 5.5 times compared to the same period last year (189 units), reaching 1,043 units (excluding Chevrolet).

Audi unveiled the all-electric RS e-tron GT and e-tron GT on the 20th.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

Audi Korea, which introduced the e-tron 55 quattro to the domestic market last July, recently revealed the actual vehicles of the 'Audi e-tron GT' and 'Audi RS e-tron GT' to automotive journalists and announced plans to launch them this year. Although prices have not yet been set, they are expected to be between 150 million KRW and close to 200 million KRW. BMW has also been accepting pre-orders for its electric vehicle ix since March. The large sports utility vehicle (SUV) ix can travel 600 km on a single charge based on European standards. The xDrive40 model is priced at 77,300 euros (about 106.5 million KRW), and the xDrive50 is 98,000 euros (about 135 million KRW).

Mercedes-Benz, which launched the 'The New EQC 400 4MATIC Premium' domestically last year, plans to release the dedicated electric vehicle The New EQS this year. It can travel 770 km on a single charge, which is about 1.5 to 2 times longer than existing electric vehicles and 150 km more than Tesla’s Model S. The price is expected to be around 100 million to 200 million KRW. Porsche, after launching the Taycan 4S last November, also introduced the flagship model Taycan Turbo S this year. Its zero-to-100 km/h acceleration time is 2.8 seconds, and its top speed is 260 km/h. The price range is 233.6 million KRW.

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