Next year's electric vehicle subsidies will be increased to a maximum of 4 million won. The government has established a new electric vehicle transition support program that provides up to 1 million won when scrapping or selling an internal combustion engine vehicle to switch to an electric vehicle, while maintaining the existing electric vehicle purchase subsidies of 3 million won.
The '2026 budget plan,' finalized and announced by the government on the 29th, contains provisions for establishing electric vehicle transition support, financing support for expanding zero-emission vehicles, increasing renewable energy, and budgeting for carbon reduction.
The government will establish a three-part financing support package for zero-emission vehicles. It will total 150 billion won, consisting of ▲ 74 billion won for zero-emission vehicle infrastructure funds ▲ 73.7 billion won for purchase loans ▲ and 2 billion won for reassurance insurance.
The government plans to attract private funds to develop charging infrastructure for eco-friendly vehicles and provide low-interest loans to transportation companies purchasing electric and hydrogen buses. Insurance will also be prepared to cover damages that could arise from electric vehicle fires.
To achieve the 2030 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) greenhouse gas reduction target, the government will also strengthen support for decarbonization. It plans to expand green finance supply, increasing the future environment industry investment fund from 45.6 billion won to 59.2 billion won and future environment industry loans from 333.3 billion won to 425.3 billion won.
Considering the increased burden on corporations due to the expanded allocation of emissions trading rights, a total of 164.6 billion won will be supported for the introduction of greenhouse gas reduction facilities.
The budget for renewable energy will also be significantly increased. The goal is to expand renewable energy generation facilities from the current 39,000 MW to 67,900 MW.
First, support will be provided for the construction of renewable energy and energy storage systems (ESS) targeting smart green industrial complexes, and loans and subsidies for solar and wind generation facilities will also be expanded. The loan support rate for RE100 industrial complexes and solar/wind pension projects will be raised from 80% to 85%.
In addition, the government will expand agrivoltaics utilizing idle agricultural land and push for low-interest loans (80 billion won) and guarantees (100 billion won) for large-scale offshore wind business operators. However, subsidies for briquettes will be reduced, and new economic revitalization projects for abandoned mine areas will be initiated.
The government will also work on establishing power grid infrastructure for the utilization of renewable energy. It plans to invest 25 billion won in proactively building power grids for RE100 industrial complexes and support Korea Electric Power Corporation with funds to expand the power grid directly. Furthermore, it will conduct microgrid demonstrations with an investment of 70.2 billion won to foster the next-generation power grid industry.