Aju Business Daily

SEOUL -- GS Caltex, a major  refiner in South Korea, joined hands with Lotte Rental, the rent-a-car wing of Lotte Group, to provide an electronic vehicle charging service for rental cars using existing car chargers.

GS Caltex said in a statement on September 23 that the company signed a memorandum of understanding with Lotte Rental to provide an EV charging service for rental cars. GS Caltex operates some 40 charging stations with 46 rapid chargers. Lotte has about 8,000 EVs for short-term and long-term rental services.

GS Caltex will provide free EV charging services for Lotte Rental's long-term EV rental program customers. Soft Berry, an EV platform maker, will collect EV operation data.

"The demand for an EV rental service is rapidly increasing due to the popularization of clean energy vehicles," GS Caltex said, adding it would expand the rapid charging infrastructure to increase customers' accessibility. The refiner plans to add 70 more rapid EV chargers by the end of this year.

South Korea is undergoing changes in its clean energy infrastructure led by major refiners. There are about 17,000 chargers, many of them installed on public car parks and administrative complexes. Because EV owners should be approved by local residents to set up chargers inside apartment parking lots, the demand for EV chargers with easy accessibility is very high.

Earlier this year, GS Caltex revealed its plan to utilize a nationwide network of gas stations as the hub of  logistics systems for drone delivery, small parcel delivery and car-sharing delivery services. GS Caltex gas stations will also house hydrogen fuel and electricity charging service platforms.

SK Energy, a refinery arm of SK Group, would install rapid EV chargers on gas stations. CJ Hello, the internet and telecommunication service wing of CJ Group, partnered with Posco ICT on July 4 to set up EV chargers at apartment complexes.