Aju Business Daily

SEOUL -- South Korea's state electricity company has developed an easy charging method that automatically enables user authentication and payment by simply connecting a charging plug to an electric car. It uses vehicle and payment information stored in electric cars instead of membership card authentication or credit card payment.

Electric vehicles applied with the "plug-and-charge" method will be unveiled in 2021. Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) said it would apply plug-and-charge functions to public fast chargers first. KEPCO will provide public key infrastructure to private charging businesses and electric car manufacturers so that they can provide plug-and-charge services without initial investment.

"We also plan to develop a technology that will automatically charge and pay when electric vehicle users park their cars by combining wireless charging and plug-and-charge technologies," a KEPCO official said, adding the company would develop various additional services, including the automatic checking of vehicles while charging.

The environment ministry said in December last year that it will deploy about 20,000 public electric vehicle chargers including some 1,500 fast chargers in 2020. The ministry will ease regulations so that anyone can participate in EV charging services to create a solid market ecosystem.

KEPCO will support the operators of small electric vehicle charging service stations with a cloud-based management system to boost the expansion of charging infrastructure for eco-friendly cars. The move is aimed at easing the financial burden of charging station operators.