Automobile Industry Association "Concerns Over National Assembly's Climate Crisis Response Act Legislation"

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] The Korea Automobile Industry Association (KAIA) expressed deep concerns on the 23rd regarding the 'Carbon Neutral Green Growth Act for Climate Crisis Response (Climate Crisis Response Act)' passed by the National Assembly on the 19th.

KAIA held an emergency online meeting and pointed out that while negotiating with the government to expand the transition to electric vehicles from the existing 24% carbon reduction target by 2030 (a cumulative 3.64 million units by 2030) to 3.85 million units, the National Assembly is suddenly pushing for the enactment of the law.

In the transportation sector, even if the cumulative electric vehicle supply target by 2030 is increased to 3.85 million units, which is the government's first proposal, 600,000 electric vehicles must be supplied in 2030 alone, but only about 40,000 domestic units are expected to be available, making the import of the remaining 200,000 units inevitable.

Assuming the domestic automobile market was about 1.8 million units in 2020 and the import car market share remains at 18.1%, domestic cars are expected to decrease from the current 1.5 million units to 1.4 million units by 2030, including 400,000 electric vehicles. In this case, parts suppliers may face a serious situation where their survival is uncertain.

KAIA's position is that sufficient prior preparations such as power generation, power facilities, and expansion of charging infrastructure must be made to rapidly transition from internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles.

They also added that with the current situation of power supply issues caused by summer heatwaves, if more than one-third of new vehicle sales are converted to electric vehicles and only half of these are charged simultaneously, the current power generation capacity will be insufficient, potentially worsening power supply problems.

Even with the current cumulative electric vehicle supply of only 170,000 units, drivers are complaining about charging inconveniences. To expand the cumulative electric vehicle supply to over 3.85 million units within the next nine years, a massive financial plan for large-scale charging infrastructure expansion, similar to the EU or the United States, must be prepared, they argued.

Jung Manki, Chairman of KAIA, said, “Considering the changes in advanced countries' 2030 carbon reduction targets, it will be inevitable to redefine our goals, but the issue is the speed.” He added, “We must carefully and precisely address this issue by thoroughly reviewing the side effects such as industrial contraction or mass unemployment that rapid carbon reduction measures may cause and preparing measures to minimize them.”

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