Industry Vice Minister Visiting Namyang Technology Research Center: "Securing Technological Competitiveness in Future Vehicle Sector is Crucial"

Urging to Secure Global Autonomous Vehicle Competitive Edge
120 Billion KRW Investment in Eco-friendly and Autonomous Vehicles This Year

Park Jin-gyu, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, is delivering a congratulatory speech at the 2022 Korea Green Mobility Awards hosted by Asia Economy at Lotte Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul on the 26th. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Dongwoo Lee] Park Jin-gyu, the 1st Vice Minister of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, emphasized on the 15th that "In the midst of rapid changes in the automobile industry due to responses to the climate crisis, it is important for South Korea to secure solid technological competitiveness in the future car sector in order to leap forward as a global leader in the automobile industry."

On the same day, Vice Minister Park visited the Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Namyang Technology Research Center located in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, to inspect the development and commercialization sites of future cars, and urged the research center officials to continue their efforts to secure an advantage in the global autonomous vehicle competition.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy plans to invest approximately 120 billion KRW in 12 projects and 146 new national tasks this year to support the transition of finished car and parts companies to future cars, including eco-friendly vehicles and autonomous vehicles.

Specifically, in the eco-friendly vehicle sector, a total of 93.3 billion KRW will be invested to support 117 tasks for core component technologies of electric and hydrogen vehicles and for parts companies’ transition technologies to future cars. The Green Car automobile industry technology development project will invest 22 billion KRW to respond to environmental regulations, and a total of 18.7 billion KRW will be provided through public contests to companies transitioning from internal combustion engine dedicated parts companies to future car parts companies such as electric and hydrogen vehicles.

Additionally, 9.8 billion KRW will be invested in the market self-sustaining 3rd generation xEV industry promotion project, and 9 billion KRW will be allocated to expand the supply of Green Car hydrogen vehicles. The preliminary feasibility study project for the market self-sustaining 3rd generation xEV industry promotion is responsible for developing technologies related to thermal management systems for improving vehicle driving efficiency and liquefied hydrogen storage systems.

In the autonomous driving vehicle sector, a total of 25.6 billion KRW will be invested to advance autonomous driving technologies and resolve the supply shortage of vehicle semiconductors. In particular, 15 billion KRW will be allocated to smart car projects for commercial vehicle autonomous driving safety technologies and automatic parking, and 5.7 billion KRW will be invested in the development of ultra-high difficulty autonomous driving mobility perception and prediction sensor technologies.

The sales proportion of eco-friendly vehicles is also increasing. Last year, the annual performance of electric and hydrogen vehicles recorded a total of 105,000 units in domestic sales and 155,000 units in exports, growing by 109% and 29% respectively compared to the previous year.

Hyundai Motor Company plans to launch new electric vehicles such as the GV70 this year and continues to promote the transition to future cars, including the domestic supply of hydrogen cargo trucks. A Hyundai Motor Company official stated, "We are doing our best to secure world-class technological competitiveness in core future car fields such as electric vehicle dedicated platforms and hydrogen fuel cells."

Vice Minister Park said, "We plan to continuously support finished car and parts companies in securing technological competitiveness in future cars so that the transition to future cars contributes to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 and maintains and expands the production base and jobs in the domestic automobile industry."

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