Kia Mobility Offers Flexible Car Hire; One Day, One Year

Now this is a smart move – why buy a car when you can rent one for a secondment to another workplace, or contract location? Of course there are your traditional car rental companies, but we’ve all been there with collision damage waivers, arguments over what the insurance actually covers etc. Avoiding car rental desks by going straight to a manufacturer’s dealership is something different. You can also hire an electric car for work, instead of buying one and taking the huge hit in depreciation. For some drivers, this could work well.

Here’s new thinking from Kia;

Kia Motors Corporation is continuing its efforts to diversify mobility services with the launch of a new mobility service, ‘KiaMobility’. The dealer-led car usership service allows users to rent vehicles from dealers for just a single day or up to a whole year.

‘KiaMobility’ offers a new mobility option at a time when people are seeking new modes of transportation following the COVID-19 outbreak. 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 personalised 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 thorough 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.

Kia announced its shift to become a provider of personalised, customer-centric and sustainable mobility services under the ‘Plan S’ strategy it revealed in January. The plan outlined the company’s intentions to develop a diverse range of mobility services and popularise electric vehicles worldwide.

In August, the company also announced plans to expand partnerships with global mobility companies to meet the diverse needs of its customers worldwide.

In Korea, Kia operates the ‘Kia Flex’ vehicle subscription program, with a fleet of up to 200 vehicles available for use. In Europe, the company established ‘WiBLE’ car sharing service in 2018 to enable users to rent and return vehicles at designated locations with its ‘free-floating’ system.

Kia also provided 200 e-Niros to the car-hailing firm Lyft in North America last year, and the company partnered with companies such as Grab, Ola, and Revv to prepare for changes in the mobility service domain in emerging markets.