Mobile carrier LG Uplus makes inroads into EV charger market

LG Uplus Corp., South Korea’s mobile and broadband service provider, has released the prototype of its first electric vehicle charger to make its inroads into the fledgling but fragmented market.

The prototype was tested in the laboratory of GENIS Korea in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province on Monday. An EV charger with a total of three cables hidden inside has been installed on the ceiling of the lab modeled after an indoor parking lot.

With a goal of joining the ranks of the top three Korean EV charger makers by 2026, it has recently completed the development of a ceiling-type, multicharging system in collaboration with the construction arm of Hanwha Corp. and two local startups -- EV charger manufacturer GENIS Korea and EV charger designer Zipool Engineering.

The chargers will be first installed on apartment complexes Hanwha is scheduled to complete next year.





The ceiling-mounted charging system occupies less installation space compared to existing chargers and can fill up three EVs simultaneously with a single charger.

When the user touches the charging menu on the screen of the kiosk, which is the size of a tablet PC, a cable comes down from the ceiling like a rope. After charging is complete, the user can insert the cable into its holder with a few touches at the kiosk.

Both LG Uplus and Hanwha expect this new type of charging system to be a game changer that would shake up the EV charging market thanks to its high space efficiency and multicharging function.

The charging level can be checked at LG Uplus’ charging platform app Volt Up.

The multicharging system allows three vehicles to be charged simultaneously. The first cable plugged charges at up to 7 kilowatts (kW) per hour, with the remaining two cables charge at up to 3kW per hour.

Both the 7kW and the 3kW are categorized as slow charging capacities.

Once the first vehicle is fully charged, the charging capacity of the next vehicle rises to 7kW.

NO DOMINANT PLAYERS

LG Uplus and Hanwha saw an opportunity in the EV charging market where no dominant player has yet to emerge.

According to the Ministry of Environment, more than 100 companies share the EV charger market, where only 250,000 charger units have been installed in South Korea as of last month.

Many of them are blamed for neglecting technology development, while taking advantage of government subsidies amounting to 50% the installation costs of EV chargers.

LG is aiming to produce 50,000 units of chargers in its first shipment sooner rather than later, said Park Beom-gyu, head of the LG Uplus’ EV infrastructure business team.

“We will also release charging products linked to telecommunication products down the road,” he added.

Write to Ju-Hyun Lee at deep@hankyung.com
 
Yeonhee Kim edited this article.