LG Chem Affiliate Launches EV Rental Service in Seoul

Consumers in Korea’s capital city of Seoul have a chance to drive Kia’s Ray electric vehicle, now that an EV car-sharing rental service has opened three major outlets and promises to have 40 in operation within a few weeks.

The EverOn subsidiary of LG CNS, an affiliate of lithium-ion battery-pack developer LG Chem, is providing the rental service under the trade name “City Car.”

The Ray EVs can be picked up at EverOn’s charging centers and driven for an hourly fee of 6,300 won ($5.60). There is a 1-hour minimum charge and after that the rate is applied in half-hour increments. The cars must be returned to one of the centers, but other than that mobility is unrestricted, except for battery life.

Customers must register with EverOn and pay a monthly subscription fee of 30,000 won ($26.50). Once registered they can reserve cars at various locations via PC or smartphone, and the vehicle will be declared ready two hours before pickup time. The EVs can be picked up or returned 24 hours daily.

The Ray is powered by an LG Chem 330V Li-ion polymer battery pack that can be recharged in six hours with a low-voltage charger or in 25 minutes using the commercial high-voltage chargers LG CNS has installed in Seoul.

The EV has a range of 86 miles (139 km) and a maximum speed of 81 mph (130 km/h), which is unlikely to be reached on the capital’s congested streets.

EverOn says it has 120 EV’s available for the initial phase of the program, but does not confirm they all are Rays. However, the Kia EVs comprise the main fleet that is based behind Seoul Station, one of the world’s busiest train stations.

A Kia spokesman tells WardsAuto the auto maker has sold “a certain number” of Rays to the City Car service, and developed the recharging system mated to the LG CNS rechargers, but does not participate directly in the rental program.

One of the apparent flaws in the program, launched this week, is that EverOn seems to have no promotional budget. The LG CNS affiliate has advised news media about the service but has made no advertising pitch to the general public.

EverOn spokesmen do say the EV fleet will expand in the second half of the year when the Renault SM3 ZE is added. If the business proves successful, the plan is to have as many as 200 City Car outlets functioning by year’s end.

A Renault Samsung spokesman confirms EverOn is one of the companies that signed an agreement this month with Korea’s Ministry of Energy to support the auto maker’s SM3 ZE program. For its part the ministry will make government subsidies available to the participating companies.

The SM3 ZE is being readied for pilot production at the Renault Samsung plant in Busan. Models of the EV that have been shown in Korea and other locations to date were produced at Renault’s production facility in Turkey.

LG CNS has designed a complete control system for the car-sharing program, including customer identification, vehicle reservation, automatic billing, vehicle tracking and maintenance and service-log management.

The subsidiary also is developing an EV-recharging grid in Seoul and on Korea’s Cheju Island that will support both low-voltage and fast-charging high-voltage systems.