Free EV Sharing
Hyundai Motor, the world's fifth-largest automaker, will start a free all-electric car sharing program in the U.S. market.
The company announced on November 17 that it has teamed up with WaiveCar, the selected startup from its Project IONIQ open call for startups in Silicon Valley back in August, to run the free electric car sharing program.
Hyundai Motor will start the pilot service first and decide whether or not to continue the program based on customer reviews. In addition, the company is considering a partnership with SmartCar, a startup that remotely provides various services using the Cloud server.
Mark Dipko, director of corporate planning and strategy at Hyundai Motor America, said, “The startup community in Silicon Valley is a growth engine that has boundless potentials for future ideas. Through the open call, we will promote new change and influence on “future mobility,” which the automobile industry will face.”
Previously, Hyundai Motor announced the Project IONIQ, a long-term research and development project that will free people from limits and problems of conventional cars and redefine future mobility through innovation, enhancing the lives of Hyundai customers and wider society in order to innovate and lead the future market, at the Geneva Motor Show 2016.
As part of the Project IONIQ, Hyundai Motor conducted the open call for startups in Silicon Valley at Stanford University in the U.S. in August in a bid to promote innovative research on the future mobility industry through open innovation.
Moreover, the company is accelerating various preceding studies to develop new types of future mobility, including micro mobility, according to changes in society and people's lifestyles
In addition, Hyundai Motor opened the Project IONIQ Lab in July in order to predict changes in future mobility and draw scenarios, and it is conducting numerous studies and research on future mobility through the business and academic cooperation system, the alliance between the different Industries to realize the “freedom in travel” with the Project IONIQ.