E-Mart’s electric vehicle charging station in Gangneung on South Korea’s east coast. (image: E-Mart Inc.)
SEOUL, Jul 2. (Korea Bizwire) — The hypermarket giant E-Mart announced today that it is planning to install charging stations for electric car use at all of its outlets nationwide by 2021.
The company initiated formal service of nine electronic charging stations in a total of four regions (Sokcho, Gangneung, Geomdan, and Gumi) today.
The stations can accommodate many cars at any given time. Starting this October, E-Mart will be expanding the number of charging stations by 30 every year so that by 2021, the total number of stations within its overarching Shinsegae Group will reach 1,100 including the 140-some stations installed on the premises of its E-Mart stores.
The multi-car charging stations will be able to accommodate a total of 18 cars that can be fully charged within 40 minutes at 100kWh, making them the fastest chargers in the nation.
A new payment system that automatically recognizes the driver’s Hi Pass payment card number will make payment easy without requiring the driver to take out his or her credit card.
E-Mart was the first retailer in the nation to build charging stations for electric cars. The company currently operates over 110 charging stations with a total capacity of charging 200 electric cars either at normal or high speeds.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
