[Apha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Paul Lee] Kia, which is converting Autoland Gwangmyeong into an electric vehicle factory, will pay 11 billion won in "Development Restriction Zone Conservation Charge."

This is because the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport rejected Gwangmyeong City's request to cut Autoland Gwangmyeong's levy to foster future cars.

According to the government and industry on the 18th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has concluded that "it is impossible" to Gwangmyeong City's request to reduce the rate of preservation charges from the current 50% to 25% only for factories approved before the designation of the development restriction zone (greenbelt). The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is known to have decided against the plan in consideration of equity with other buildings in the greenbelt and disputes over preferential treatment that will arise in the future.

As a result, Kia is expected to pay 11 billion won (estimated by the industry) in greenbelt conservation fees.

Kia plans to invest a total of 400 billion won to convert its existing two plants into electric vehicle lines and launch new electric vehicles such as EV3·EV4 from June next year. However, due to the regulation of the pond 52 years ago, it had a burden bomb of more than 10 billion won from the start.

As the factory is expanded, not only the investment cost but also the amount of the levy increases. Kia also reportedly turned to maintaining the existing factory framework and minimizing the expansion area as the burden increased by nearly 100 billion won when it first designed the electric vehicle line of Autoland Gwangmyeong.

Kia Autoland Gwangmyeong is one of the three major hubs for Hyundai Motor Group's production of electric vehicles in Korea, along with Autoland Hwaseong (Kia) and Ulsan Electric Vehicle Plant (Hyundai Motor).

Hyundai Motor Group plans to produce 41% (1.51 million units) of its annual global production in Korea.

 

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