The Ministry of Environment announced on the 29th that 95.4% of public institutions that purchased or leased vehicles last year achieved the mandatory purchase and lease ratio for electric and hydrogen vehicles.
According to the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, among 626 institutions that purchased or leased new vehicles last year, 597 (95.4%) achieved the mandatory rate. This represents an increase of about 2.7 percentage points compared to the previous year.
Last year, the 626 institutions purchased or leased a total of 8,059 vehicles, of which electric and hydrogen vehicles accounted for 7,181 (89.1%), a rise of approximately 4.1 percentage points from the previous year.
However, the Constitutional Court, Asan Youth Foundation, Korea Pickled Vegetable Company, Gyeongbuk Happiness Foundation, and Seoul Water Recycling Facility Corporation did not meet the mandatory rate at all, recording 0%.
Under Article 58-5 of the current 'Air Quality Conservation Act' and Article 10-2 of the 'Promotion of Development and Distribution of Environment-Friendly Vehicles Act,' national agencies, local governments, and public institutions are mandated to fill over 100% of the vehicles they purchase or lease each year with electric and hydrogen vehicles.
However, applying the conversion ratio by vehicle type means that purchasing or leasing one electric passenger car is calculated as 1.5 units. If an institution were to make all its purchases or leases electric vehicles, the mandatory rate would be recorded as 150%.
The Ministry of Environment will strengthen the mandatory purchase of electric and hydrogen vehicles starting this year. On November 6 of last year, the Ministry revised the 'Standard Method for Calculating the Actual Performance of Mandatory Purchase and Lease of Low-Emission Vehicles' to include two-wheeled vehicles in the new purchase and lease targets and to calculate the purchase of one electric or hydrogen vehicle as one unit.
Meanwhile, a survey by the Ministry of Environment on this year's mandatory purchase and lease plans revealed that 681 out of a total of 783 institutions (87%) are expected to meet the mandatory ratio, while the remaining 102 (13%) are predicted not to reach it. The Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy plan to periodically check the performance of institutions that do not meet the requirements and encourage them to achieve the mandatory ratio.
The Ministry of Environment also announced the results of hydrogen fuel cell bus distribution. A total of 1,044 hydrogen fuel cell buses were distributed nationwide last year, a 1.6-fold increase from the cumulative distribution of 651 units over the previous five years (2019-2023).
Between January and April of this year, 287 hydrogen fuel cell buses were also distributed, showing an increase of about 2.7 times compared to the same period last year (106 units). The Ministry of Environment aims to enhance the effectiveness of its hydrogen fuel cell bus distribution policy while also actively reviewing the introduction of commercial vehicles based on hydrogen combustion engines.