Starting next year, state subsidies per hydrogen car will be reduced to 20 million won, 11.1% less than this year. It is the first time in nine years that the government has cut state subsidies for hydrogen vehicles since 2018.
According to the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment’s detailed project explanation data for the 2027 budget on the 13th, state subsidies per hydrogen car will be reduced by 2.5 million won from 22.5 million won this year to 20 million won next year. The purchase support volume will be maintained at 6,000 units, the same as this year, but the budget for supporting hydrogen vehicles will be reduced by 15 billion won from 135 billion won to 120 billion won by lowering subsidies per unit.
The amount of hydrogen bus purchase support decreased from 2,000 units in 2025 to 1,800 this year and 1,400 next year for the second consecutive year. The government subsidies per unit will also be given from 210 million won to 200 million won for low-floor buses, and from 260 million won to 250 million won for high-floor buses.
The government has significantly increased the budget for electric vehicle supply next year, while reducing the budget for supporting the purchase of hydrogen cars by 23%. The Ministry of Climate initially demanded 553.9 billion won as a budget for next year’s hydrogen car supply project, but it was reduced to 445.7 billion won in the process of organizing the government’s plan. This is a decrease of 130.5 billion won (22.6%) from this year’s budget of 576.2 billion won.
The Ministry of Strategy and Budget explained the weaker-than-expected demand for hydrogen cars as the reason for reducing the budget. In fact, the execution rate was only 67% of the 638.6 billion won budget for the hydrogen car supply project last year. As of the end of July this year, the execution rate was 47%, less than half.
The budget for supporting pollution-free vehicle charging infrastructure is also 28% lower than this year. The budget for building hydrogen charging stations was reduced by 36.9% and the budget for building and supporting electric vehicle charging infrastructure was reduced by 37.2%. The government explained that it considered the fact that the budget execution rate was only 61.1 percent last year and that the execution performance was poor, staying at 59 percent this year.
The government has set aside 2.14 trillion won for next year’s electric vehicle supply budget, up 22% from this year.
[Reporter Kim Geum]
