Kia to launch first car-sharing service as S. Korean carmaker

By Park Sae-jin Posted : August 8, 2017, 15:34 Updated : August 8, 2017, 15:38

[Courtesy of KIa Motors]


Kia Motors jumped into in the car-sharing market for the first time as a South Korean carmaker in Seoul, amid the growing popularity of rental driven by traffic congestion, increasing costs and a convergence of business models.

"We will start to provide out car sharing service in an apartment complex in Seoul from August 11," a Kia official told Aju News Tuesday. "We plan to expand our service to more apartment complexes and eventually to other countries."

Kia's service "WiBLE" will use nine models including its full-electric vehicle "Soul EV", the hybrid SUV "Niro" and the full-sized recreational vehicle "Carnival" in Seoul's southwestern Guro district. "Anyone who wishes to use our service can reserve and rent the vehicles through a smartphone app."

"The way people think about owning a vehicle has changed over time," the Kia official said, adding his company hopes to provide easy transportation at stations near homes at any time. 

A dozen companies provide car sharing services which were introduced in South Korea seven years ago. Global carmakers also provide similar services, such as BMW which operates a fleet of more than one thousand vehicles for its car sharing service in three American cities -- Seattle, Washington and New York.

Car sharing is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time. car2go, a subsidiary of Daimler AG, is the world's largest car sharing company with more than 2.5 million members in North America, Europe and Asia. 
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