Aju Business Daily

SEOUL -- In an effort to collect big data of electric vehicle maintenance cases, develop effective repair techniques and nurture skillful engineers, a state research institute has partnered with a group of car repair engineers to establish a forward research base that houses a big data-based electric vehicle maintenance platform in the southern resort island of Jeju.

Jeju Island with more than 600,000 registered vehicles has the country's largest electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure inhabited by some 20,000 EVs thanks to some 15 million annual visitors. Many EVs are operated by rent-a-car service operators as well as local residents. To support such a large number of eco-friendly cars, Jeju has more than 14,000 charging stations in public areas.

The Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, a government research institute, said in a statement on Tuesday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Korea Automobile Repair & Inspection Federation and Jeju Island to participate in a government project led by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The project participants will cooperate in the development of an EV maintenance platform that utilizes big data to analyze and sort repair techniques for engineers. The repair engineers' federation will be in charge of the development of diagnostic technology that detects deteriorated EV batteries.

Jeju will develop diagnostic technology to detect malfunctions in EV motors and inverters. A total of 18.7 billion won ($15.6 million) will be injected into the project until 2024. Also, the provincial government will nurture new engineers using big data and a maintenance platform.

South Korea, which has about 100,000 EVs, aims to increase the number of eco-friendly cars to 433,000 by 2022. Local governments are promoting EVs by providing subsidies while bus companies are adopting electric buses one by one. The National postal service has adopted a fleet of small-sized EVs to replace delivery motorbikes.

Hyundai Motor has revealed an electric minibus that can carry up to 20 passengers. The minibus targets village shuttle bus operators covering a short return route of about 15.8 kilometers (9.8 miles).