- Company Builds public charging infrastructure and household chargers, offers membership services
- Company Promotes spread of electric cars by cooperating with electric car manufacturers and amenity management agencies

POSCO ICT (CEO Choi, Doo Whan) collaborates with GM – which is set to release electric cars in Korea – to promote the spread of charging infrastructure for electric cars.

Having been selected as charging infrastructure services provider for electric cars by GM Korea Company, POSCO ICT is expected to build new public charging infrastructures and offer charging services in around 120 places such as GM Korea Company A/S centers, sales agents, and supermarkets located in central points of the city. In addition, POSCO ICT plans to establish household chargers for electric car drivers and to offer membership services as well. GM is set to release the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) “Volt” in the second half of this year.

GM electric car owners can charge their cars more conveniently with their membership services by visiting newly constructed charging infrastructures and by visiting supermarkets, theaters, department stores, and hotels nationwide.

POSCO ICT currently owns about 250 chargers, and it is installing about 50 more chargers until the end of this year aside from the chargers to be built based on the collaboration with GM Korea Company. This is the largest-scale electric vehicle charging infrastructure among privately operated infrastructures. As an advantage of this service, since POSCO ICT operates the infrastructure built  after considering where drivers often visit and stay for a certain amount of time in their daily life, drivers only need to drive 4-5km from their location in order to charge their cars.

Such strength is expected to strengthen the relationship between POSCO ICT and electric vehicle manufacturers. For their part, electric car manufacturers can solve their charging infrastructure shortage problem, which was seen as a barrier to the spread of electric cars, through the cooperation with POSCO ICT since they can use POSCO ICT’s existing charging infrastructures.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy recently announced its year-end plan to install one high-speed battery charger for every 2km radius at the center point of Seoul City and Jeju Island such as places where gas stations, supermarkets, and parking lots are mainly located, or about 490 chargers in all. Furthermore, about 30,000 chargers are to be installed at 4,000 apartments, which will help promote electric cars in Korea.

“Attention has been increasingly focused on electric vehicles due to high environmental concerns such as air pollution and energy-saving technology. Cooperation with the electric car manufacturer is vital for extending the charging infrastructure, which is regarded as an obstacle to the spread of electric cars,” POSCO ICT Director Kim, Jong Hyun  commented.

Meanwhile, POSCO ICT is considering gradually charging membership services, which used to be free for existing members, beginning next August. The charging system works just like a transportation card. Electric car owners can recharge their prepaid  cards for certain amounts of money and pay for the electricity they used. The payment system details are to be decided right before the start of the service in August.