Sacheon-si Supports Early Retirement of Old Diesel Vehicles ... Reducing Fine Dust

Expansion of Emission Regulations to Include Grade 4 Diesel Vehicles

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Choi Soon-kyung] Sacheon City, Gyeongnam Province, is promoting the '2023 Early Retirement Support Project for Old Diesel Vehicles' to reduce fine dust and improve air quality.

The city will accept applications for early retirement support for old diesel vehicles from January 16 to February 16, providing early retirement subsidies for a total of 1,040 vehicles, including 900 vehicles rated grade 5 and 140 vehicles rated grade 4. The total project cost is 1.958 billion KRW.

The support targets are diesel vehicles rated emission grade 4 or 5, or road construction machinery (dump trucks, concrete mixer trucks, concrete pump trucks) manufactured before 2005 under the emission standards applied at that time.

Sacheon City Hall, Gyeongnam.

Additionally, the vehicle must have been continuously registered in Sacheon City for more than six months as of the announcement date, and the final owner must have owned it for more than six months.

The selection method prioritizes vehicles with older model years, and among the same model years, those with larger engine displacement. Subsidies are provided based on the vehicle standard value calculated by the Insurance Development Institute within the upper limit range by vehicle weight and engine displacement.

In particular, if an old diesel vehicle is scrapped and a new LPG cargo truck (1 ton) is purchased, the applicant will receive priority in the early retirement support and an additional 1 million KRW will be provided along with the early retirement subsidy.

However, vehicles judged as not operable, those equipped with emission reduction devices or converted to low-emission engines through government support, are excluded from the support.

Recipients of the early retirement subsidy for old diesel vehicles will be announced on the Sacheon City Hall website and notified individually in March.

A city official said, "To prevent the spread of COVID-19, we discourage in-person applications and recommend submission via registered mail, email, or online application through the vehicle emission grade system website," adding, "We hope many citizens cooperate to create a pleasant city environment."

The early retirement support project for old diesel vehicles applied only to grade 5 diesel vehicles until last year but has been expanded to include grade 4 diesel vehicles starting this year. Diesel vehicle emission grades can be checked on the Ministry of Environment website.