President Yoon Suk-yeol pledged on Tuesday that he would help South Korea increase the production of electric vehicles (EVs) fivefold by 2030, making the ROK one of the top three EV producers during a groundbreaking ceremony for Kia Corporation’s EV factory in Gyeonggi Province. It is the first plant in the ROK that will produce EVs exclusively.

Hyundai Motor Company — Kia Corporation’s parent company — will invest $18.2 billion (24 trillion won) in its domestic EV production facilities and other EV projects by 2030. Yoon said that he would speed up the country’s Great Train Express (GTX) project. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) announced in Dec. 2022 that the tunnel construction for the GTX-A express line was completed. GTX-A is a 39.8 km line that connects Gangnam, Seoul, to Dongtan, Gyeonggi Province.