Kia Motors Partners with Hyundai Capital and Startups for 'On-Demand Charging Service'

[Asia Economy Reporter Suyeon Woo] Kia Motors has partnered with Hyundai Capital and an electric vehicle charging infrastructure startup to provide convenient electric vehicle charging services without restrictions of time and place.

On the 28th, Kia Motors held a signing ceremony for the 'On-Demand Charging Service Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)' at Hyundai Capital headquarters, attended by Kwon Hyuk-ho, Vice President and Head of Domestic Business Division at Kia Motors, Mok Jin-won, Executive Director of Hyundai Capital's Capital Division, Lee Hoon, CEO of EVAR, and Hong Young-jin, CEO of Mintec, among other officials.

This MOU was established to reduce the burden of electric vehicle charging by allowing customers to select their desired time and place through a mobile application page, without having to visit a charging station, as a service vehicle directly visits to provide charging services.

Kia Motors will first operate a pilot project to verify the efficiency of the service for five months from November this year to March next year. The service targets customers using Kia electric vehicles Soul EV and Niro EV through Hyundai Capital's car-sharing service 'Deelcar' operated in the Jeju region. These customers can request free charging services regardless of battery level, and can charge up to a maximum of 40kWh, which allows driving approximately 240km.

Kia Electric Vehicle Niro EV

A notable feature is the development of charging batteries by reusing existing electric vehicle batteries and installing them in the dispatch vehicles. Together with EVAR, a mobile charger startup, Kia Motors modified a Bongo EV used as a service dispatch vehicle to build a charging system, and by reusing batteries from existing Niro EVs in this charging system, it also contributes to creating an eco-friendly energy ecosystem.

Additionally, Kia Motors collaborated with Mintec, a battery diagnostic solution company, to complete verification of the safety and efficiency of the reused batteries. Kia Motors plans to expand the on-demand charging service in various ways beyond the service where charging vehicles directly visit the site, and also plans to expand the service area nationwide.

A Kia Motors official stated, "We plan to further develop new types of on-demand charging services to expand charging infrastructure and eliminate charging blind spots so that customers using Kia electric vehicle models do not experience inconvenience due to charging."

Meanwhile, Kia Motors plans to distribute about 1,500 electric vehicle chargers at its own bases such as nationwide sales outlets, dealerships, and service centers by 2030, and at the group level, it aims to establish a total of 120 ultra-fast chargers on nationwide highways and major urban areas by 2021.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.