Kia Signs Eco-Friendly Future Vehicle Cooperation MOU with Hwaseong City... "Providing Innovative Mobility Experience"

Comprehensive Collaboration in Electric Vehicles, Shared Mobility, Purpose-Built Vehicles, and Autonomous Driving Fields

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] Kia recently announced on the 14th that it has signed an 'Eco-friendly Future Vehicle Cooperation Agreement' with Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi Province, and will join forces to develop the eco-friendly future mobility industry and realize the Hwaseong-type Green New Deal.

Through this agreement, Kia and Hwaseong City will mutually cooperate in the eco-friendly future vehicle sector, including ▲expanding the distribution of eco-friendly vehicles ▲activating shared mobility ▲creating a smart mobility environment based on autonomous driving ▲promoting demonstration projects using Purpose Built Vehicles (PBV) ▲building an eco-friendly vehicle ecosystem.

As the first project, Kia will provide the ‘wible BIZ’ service to Hwaseong City starting from the 15th of this month. Wible BIZ is a service that combines subscription and sharing, where public sectors or companies subscribe to electric vehicles during designated working hours, and individuals use the electric vehicles for commuting or weekend leisure during other times. Not only the public sector but also companies and individuals can use electric vehicles at affordable rates.

Kia plans to deploy 10 Niro EV electric vehicles in Hwaseong City and operate more than 30 vehicles by the end of the year. Considering the stabilization period, the service will initially be provided to Hwaseong City public officials for the first six months, and then the scope will be expanded to Hwaseong citizens.

The introduction of wible BIZ is expected to expand the distribution of electric vehicles and increase the social utility of the sharing economy. Based on this, Kia plans to advance the service model and expand the business to various sectors such as public sectors, companies, and industrial complexes in other domestic regions in the future.

Kia’s acceleration in the mobility business is part of its mid- to long-term strategy Plan S to secure a leading position in the future market.

According to Plan S, Kia is renewing ‘wible’, currently operating in Madrid, Spain, as an integrated mobility service brand, and plans to start new mobility businesses in the global market under the brand name wible combined with service names.

Moreover, based on the successful operation experience of Kia’s first subscription service program ‘Kia Flex’, various mobility businesses will be developed.

In the future, Kia plans to cooperate with various fields aiming to create an eco-friendly mobility ecosystem by simultaneously fostering the electric vehicle upstream and downstream industries using big data such as electric vehicle-based mobility, business solutions, batteries, vehicle status, and driving data.

Song Ho-sung, President of Kia, said, "Kia is striving to provide customers with innovative mobility experiences beyond manufacturing and selling vehicles," adding, "Starting with the wible BIZ service, we will continue to provide customers with innovative mobility experiences through differentiated services."

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