Gov’t to fund development of affordable electric scooters

Korea will develop a range of small, affordable scooters that operate solely on electricity by 2017.

The vehicles will be priced at under 10 million won ($8,971) and will be suitable for short distances.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on Sunday announced that the ministry plans to allocate 5 billion won by 2016 to develop three-wheeled electric vehicles, following a program funding the development of an electric compact car that started last year.

The products are expected to be commercialized after 2017.

It takes up to three and a half hours to charge compact electric vehicles and scooters, less than the six hours it takes to charge regular electric vehicles.