It was reported on the 12th that the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment decided to improve the criteria for selecting businesses for paying electric vehicle subsidies, which had sparked controversy over discrimination against imported cars.
On this day, Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Lee So-young wrote on X (formerly Twitter), "On the 10th, we attached a supplementary opinion to the supplementary budget bill stating, 'There are concerns that the criteria for selecting beneficiaries of the electric vehicle supply project are favorable only to a specific company and unfairly restrict consumers' choices; therefore, the evaluation criteria will be reasonably improved and reported to the National Assembly,' and this was passed at the plenary session."
Lee said, "For the government to execute the budget, it must comply with the supplementary opinion attached by the National Assembly, so the duty to 'reasonably improve the evaluation criteria and report to the National Assembly' has been officially imposed." She added, "I will closely manage the process so that not just a formal tweak but a substantive policy change can take place."
Earlier, the climate ministry decided to introduce new factors such as electric vehicle manufacturers' and importers' "industrial contribution" and "research and development capacity" into the criteria that determine whether to pay electric vehicle subsidies starting in the second half. As this became known, among consumers there were concerns that overseas companies such as U.S. Tesla and China's BYD might not receive subsidies or might see subsidies reduced compared with domestic firms, which have stronger employment and investment records.
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On the 8th, during the comprehensive policy inquiry on the supplementary budget at the Special Committee on Budget & Accounts of the National Assembly, lawmaker Lee So-young asked Minister Kim Sung-hwan of the climate ministry, "Subsidies are concentrated only on vehicles from a few specific corporations, and the rest of the companies' vehicles are excluded, which inevitably reduces consumers' choices." In response, Minister Kim said, "For the detailed method, we should have set the evaluation framework to match the intent, but this evaluation failed to properly reflect it in some respects," adding, "We will swiftly review whether there are errors related to the scoring and take steps to prevent misunderstandings about the sellers."