Kia Motors has launched a new mobility service, ‘KiaMobility’, a dealer-led car usership service. The mobility service will allow the users to rent vehicles from dealers for just a single day or up to a whole year.
The company has developed its own fleet management platform for the mobility service, allowing collective operation of vehicles at the dealership. The platform is designed to provide personalized service for customers to reserve vehicles of their choice, pay via a mobile app, and visit the dealer for pick-up and drop-off of the vehicles, which undergo through sanitation to ensure safety.
‘KiaMobility’ is first being launched at 16 locations through dealerships in Italy and Russia. Following the pilot scheme, Kia plans to expand the service next year in Europe and other regions such as Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Middle East.
Plan S’ strategy
Kia is working on a plan to diversify services tailored to various customer lifestyles by region. For this the automaker is expanding its partnerships with global mobility companies. In January this year, Kia Motors had announced its long-term ‘Plan S’ strategy, which outlines the company’s plans to diversify mobility services in strategic regions around the globe.
As it implements its ‘Plan S’ strategy, these are some of the steps the company will be taking in future:
Seven dedicated BEVs in the sketch revealed today will be launched by 2027.
> In Korea, Kia will enhance its local ‘Kia Flex’ vehicle subscription program by expanding the fleet size to 200 vehicles. The vehicle line-up will include the new Carnival, which is nearing its Korean market launch, and a new EV model to be added in the future.
> In Europe, Kia will collaborate with global partners to provide a customized mobility service for the region. In 2018, the company had established a car-sharing service called ‘WiBLE’ with Spanish energy company Repsol. WiBLE enables users to rent and return vehicles at designated locations with its ‘free-floating’ system. It currently operates 500 Niro PHEVs and is one of the leading car-sharing providers in Spain. Building on the platform, Kia plans to provide multi-modal mobility services in the future.
> Kia will also launch a dealer mobility service in Italy and Russia later this year. This is a new service enabling dealers to rent out their vehicles for any period, from a single day up to a full year.
> In North America, Kia will accelerate its electrification efforts and further enhance its cooperation with its mobility partners. The company provided 200 Niro EVs to the car-hailing firm Lyft last year, and this year provided 44 Niro HEVs to MoceanLab, Hyundai Motor Group’s mobility service company.
> MoceanLab was established last year to provide mobility services in the City of Los Angeles, and plans to expand its services to include autonomous ridesharing, shuttling, multi-modal transportation, and personal mobility. It operates a free-floating system with its 100-vehicle fleet, which includes the new Niro HEV units. Kia plans to develop new products tailored to enhance mobility services based on data from MoceanLab’s service vehicles.
In emerging markets, Kia is also preparing for changes in the mobility service domain. Kia has partnered with companies such as Ola, India’s ride-hailing company; Revv, an Indian car-sharing company; and Grab, Southeast Asia’s largest ride-hailing company. These partnerships will enable Kia to better understand the mobility needs of its customers in the development of future vehicles.
Seven dedicated BEVs in seven years
Kia is aiming for BEVs to account for 20 percent of the brand’s total vehicle sales in advanced markets, including Korea, North America and Europe. Seven dedicated BEVs will be launched by the company by 2027. Brand’s first dedicated BEV, codenamed CV,will be launch in 2021 and reveal Kia’s new design direction. The company will also work with worldwide network to expand EV charging infrastructures
Purple M
With the aim to offer customized EV mobility services, Kia Motors Corporation has also founded ‘Purple M’, a new mobility service start-up. Purple M is a new joint venture created in partnership between Kia Motors and CODE42.ai, a Korean technology firm working on transition to autonomous Transportation-as-a-Service (TaaS). Through this new start-up, Kia and CODE42.ai plan to create new concepts for mobility services and realize a shared goal of leading innovation in future mobility.
