Seoul City "Electric Vehicle Charging Made Easy with Just One Mobile Phone"

Starting This Month, 'QR Simple Payment Method' Introduced

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 12th that it will sequentially introduce the 'QR Simple Payment Method,' jointly developed with mobility companies and private charging operators, starting this month to simplify the complex electric vehicle charging payment process into a single mobile phone.

As the charging infrastructure expanded and the number of charging operators increased, electric vehicle users had to endure the inconvenience of obtaining 5 to 6 membership cards from individual charging operators or installing separate apps to pay fees. Without subscribing to each charging operator's mobile app service, users could not make payments.

To resolve the inconvenience for electric vehicle users and improve charging services, the city will introduce a QR simple payment method that allows payment of charging fees with just one mobile phone, without the need for membership cards from each operator.

With the introduction of simple payment, not only public electric vehicle chargers installed directly by the Seoul Metropolitan Government but also private electric vehicle chargers installed with Seoul city subsidies will be included, enabling both existing charging operator members and non-members to easily use chargers without separate registration procedures.

The usage method is simple. To use the simple payment, users just need to scan the QR code attached to the charger with their mobile phone camera. After selecting the desired mobility company (Tmap, KakaoNavi), users can register as members and add payment methods to immediately use the service. Charging operator members will be automatically connected to the corresponding app to pay fees.

Additionally, chargers installed directly by the Seoul Metropolitan Government will provide multilingual services (English, Japanese, Chinese) so that foreigners can also easily use the chargers.

To enhance charging services and resolve electric vehicle charging inconveniences, the Seoul Metropolitan Government signed a business agreement last October with Seoul Energy Corporation, mobility companies (Tmap, KakaoNavi), and eight Seoul electric vehicle charging operators, and collaboratively developed this simple payment system.

Lee In-geun, Head of the Seoul Climate and Environment Headquarters, stated, “Until now, users had to carry multiple cards issued by individual operators to use electric vehicle chargers, which was inconvenient. However, this project establishes a system that allows simple payment via mobile phones without cards, which will significantly improve charging convenience for citizens.” He added, “To realize the era of 10% electric vehicles by 2026, we will expand the charging network densely in residential areas and make further efforts to resolve charging inconveniences for electric vehicle users.”