Korea Responds to Japanese Attempt to Corner Hybrid Market
I reported before about how Japanese car makers are targeting Korea for hybrid car sales. Well this may be in response to the Japanese attempt to corner the hybrid market in Korea:
South Korea will spend 144.9 billion won (US$149.5 million) this year to introduce emergency robots and boost demand for fuel-efficient hybrid cars, the government said Tuesday.
In a meeting of government officials and business executives, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said that it will help public companies buy a total 418 hybrid-engined cars by year’s end.
The cars will have fuel economy rates more than 50 per cent greater than the Hyundai Verna sedan that can travel 12.3-kilometers on a liter of gasoline. This translates into vehicles traveling 22-kilometers for the same fuel.
The ministry said it will offer each public company 28.0 million won for each vehicle that it purchases. The cars have a price tag of 33.6 million won at present, but actually cost the manufacturer 100 million won to produce.
Basically what I’m reading from this is that the Korean government is going to subsidize and protect the Korean car market from the Japanese attempt to corner the hybrid market. If it sells more hybrids overall I’m all for it.
More fuel efficient cars will mean in the long run that there will be less money in the hands of idiot dictators such as the rulers in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela not to mention the environmental impacts that hybrids will have, especially in a city with such heavy traffic as Seoul.
