(image: Kakao Mobility)
SEOUL, March 30 (Korea Bizwire) — Kakao Mobility Corp., the country’s top taxi-hailing company, announced Tuesday a plan to expand its fleet of platform-based electric taxis to 10,000 units by the end of this year.
To this end, Kakao Mobility intends to promote not only general mid-sized taxis but also pro-membership users to shift towards electric taxis.
As of March, 2,000 units of the company’s affiliated taxis were converted into electric taxis, a volume equivalent to about 30 percent of the 7,000 units registered in its taxi-hailing service Kakao T.
Kakao Mobility plans to expand the coverage of the ‘charging discount card and charging station information service’ that it currently provides to its affiliated drivers who bought electric taxis, as well as to expand the provision of the ‘battery management’ service that enables users to check battery performance of electric taxis anytime.
Through partnerships with the government, state-run enterprises and private charging businesses, Kakao Mobility plans to expand the number of electric vehicle chargers to 40,000 units by the end of this year.
At present, Kakao Mobility provides 32,000 chargers through the Kakao Navi and Kakao T apps.
To enhance access and user convenience for electric car charging infrastructure, Kakao Mobility plans to introduce a string of new functions on a step by step basis, among others, optimal routes to charging stations, charger malfunctions and charger reservation.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
