International Electric Vehicle Expo

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International Electric
Vehicle Expo (IEVE) rises

as “EV DAVOS Forum”
from Jeju, the grave-yard of
industrial exhibition.

The beginning commenced from the southern end of Jeju Island. Gapado, the island of islands, located alongside the southernmost island of Marado, was the object of yearning by people due to a small number of visitors, less than 5,000 a year until ten years ago. Until then, nobody expected that a vision of 'Carbon-free island' and the revolution of electric vehicles would happen in this small island.

The spirit of change began in private volunteer activities. The young people of Gapado left to the main island of Jeju due to the problems of job and education of their children, leaving old people behind.
Small and medium-sized enterprises, which had been engaged in volunteer activities at the level of private companies, such as wall-papering, electric construction, and home repair along with a sisterhood relationship on a basis of one company and one village, became the focus of Jeju small business.

In this, people who worked in all walks of life such as professors, journalists, financial people, businessmen, engineers, and NGOs joined, forming the group named "The gathering of people who love Gapa-do(called Gasamo).
They have been promoting the 'Island project of without Carbon', which will protect the identity of the island, and make the island an independent island of energy through renewable energy. They also played a central role in bringing the project of underground poles and micro-grid national projects into Gapado.

There are not many people who know that the project 'Carbon-free Island 2030', an ambitious project, has been being promoted by Jeju Island in the present day, actually began in Gapado.

In April 2012, the International Green Island Forum, an international network, dreaming of a green world, was established based on the activities of Gasamo. The International Green Island Forum has devised a variety of technological options for the carbonless island since then. The people of Gasamo held a forum, looked for benchmarking cases, and played a role of a midwife, assisting in the birth of the International Electric Vehicle Expo naturally by interacting with the people from all over the world.

The other axis is the Jeju Smart Grid Corporation, established in June 2011. Since the end of 2009, Jeju Smart Grid Demonstration complex participating groups, which began in the whole area of Gujwa-eup from the end of 2009 and IT venture companies joined together. They promoted interchange between Bornholm Island, Denmark, which is known as the Island of New and Renewable Energy and Gapado. The Smart Grid Department of Jeju Island and the Smart Grid Research Center of Jeju National University contributed to it.

The carbon-free island 2030, the future vision of Jeju Island, announced in 2012, and the World Council of Nature Conservation(WCC) held in the same year gradually warmed the atmosphere of the times. Their efforts to find a vision of Jeju as a sustainable green island and a new growth driving force for Jeju and to foster a global small-giant enterprise in Jeju have become increasingly intertwined. It was an electric vehicle. They held their own forums and seminars, gradually being settled with the small exhibition.

The industry-academia association members with the central role of the International Green Island Forum and Jeju Smart Grid Business Association, persuaded the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the Ministry of Environment and the National Assembly, finally leading to the selection of the International Electric Vehicle Expo as part of the 2013 Jeju Metropolitan Economic Leading Industry Development Recreation MICE project. It was a great achievement for those who persuaded people to find out the reason why the International Electric Vehicle Expo should be held in Jeju by going around the World as well as Seoul.

On March 15, 2014, the first International Electric Vehicle Expo began its history. The first week of the event, in which 41 companies attracted 47,000 spectators and made the industry and government ministries astonished by unexpected success. Being told off like "Are you going to know Expo" or "Does it make sense to do a motor show in Jeju?" turned into a surprise that Jeju had offered a new possibility.

It's been 11 years since 2018 when people who fell in love with a small island paved the new foundation for the bare ground. Now, the International Electric Automobile Expo has grown to become an international EXPO and academic venue for 148 companies from 39 countries and 73,000 visitors.