Seoul City to Add 1,500 Electric Taxis in Second Half of Year... Additional Subsidy of 3 Million Won Provided

Up to 12 Million KRW Support for Electric Taxis... Online Applications Open from the 16th

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 16th that it is recruiting individual and corporate taxi operators to participate in this year's eco-friendly electric taxi distribution project.

Seoul will provide purchase subsidies for an additional 1,500 electric taxis (1,200 individual, 300 corporate) in the second half of the year, following 1,500 units in the first half, targeting taxi operators holding Seoul taxi licenses. However, individual taxi operators who have received electric taxi subsidies within the past two years are not eligible to apply.

Since November 2020, electric taxis have been exempted from the individual taxi day-off system, allowing operation every day of the week. Due to the lower electricity charging cost compared to fuel costs, demand has been significantly increasing. Based on a daily operation of 220 km, the fuel cost for LPG taxis is 21,622 KRW (1,002.51 KRW/liter, excluding fuel subsidy), while for electric taxis it is 10,228 KRW (292.9 KRW/kWh).

As the purchase demand from taxi operators gradually rises, Seoul is actively promoting electric taxis by increasing the number of units distributed this year to 3,000 (1,500 in the first half and 1,500 in the second half), a 480% increase compared to last year. Since 2015, Seoul has continuously increased the number of electric taxis distributed, reaching 1,662 units by last year. Especially last year, due to high demand, the supply was quickly exhausted, and this year the goal is to distribute 3,000 units in response to the increased demand.

Purchase subsidies will be provided differentially based on vehicle price and performance. Vehicles priced at 85 million KRW or more are excluded from subsidy support, while vehicles priced below 55 million KRW will receive 100% subsidy. Vehicles priced below 55 million KRW will receive full subsidy, and those priced between 55 million KRW and 85 million KRW will receive support within 50% of the subsidy. Vehicles priced at 85 million KRW or more will not be supported.

Since taxis travel 7 to 13 times more daily than regular passenger cars, switching to electric vehicles has a significant greenhouse gas reduction effect, so an additional subsidy of up to 3 million KRW, totaling a maximum of 12 million KRW, will be provided. Applications for participation in the electric taxi distribution project and subsidy requests can be submitted online starting from the 16th through the Ministry of Environment's Zero-Emission Vehicle Integrated Website. More detailed information can be found on the Seoul Metropolitan Government's website. Also, while the first half of the year selected subsidy recipients through a computerized lottery system, due to issues such as parts shortages causing new vehicle delivery delays of about one year, the selection method for the second half will be changed to a vehicle delivery and registration order system to prevent problems such as purchase support cancellations due to undelivered vehicles.

Baek Ho, Director of Urban Transportation Office of Seoul, said, “We have significantly expanded the recruitment number in response to the increasing demand for electric taxi purchases due to greenhouse gas reduction and fuel cost savings,” adding, “We hope for the active interest of taxi operators and citizens to continuously expand electric taxi distribution and establish an eco-friendly transportation system.”

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