Hyundai Motor Group and Grab Holdings Incorporated (Grab) have announced an expansion of their existing mobility services partnership to focus on increasing the rate of electric vehicle (EV) adoption throughout Southeast Asia. The Group, comprising its affiliates Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Corporation, as well as Grab, will continue to create additional pilots and efforts to decrease the barriers to entry for Grab drivers and delivery partners to adopt EVs.
According to survey findings from an initial EV pilot carried out by the companies in Singapore, high costs, a shortage of charging stations, and long charging wait times are the top barriers preventing Grab driver-partners from adopting EVs. The partnership will focus on overcoming some of these roadblocks by testing new EV business models such as leasing EVs with a battery-as-a-service or car-as-a-service model, as well as EV financing.
The new pilot programme is scheduled to start begin in Singapore in 2021 and then expand to Indonesia and Vietnam. The two parties will also perform an EV feasibility study as part of the roadmap development. The goal is to obtain a better understanding of the gaps and challenges to EV adoption and ownership, as well as to translate the study’s results into practical approaches to improve the EV ecosystem. These findings will give governments and players in the industry ideas and best practises for shaping EV policies to better accommodate the day-to-day operating routines of ride-hailing drivers and delivery partners.
