2023-07-03 06:05:06
LG Uplus announced on the 3rd that it will enter into the electric vehicle charging business in earnest by signing a joint venture contract with Kakao Mobility for the electric vehicle charging business.
(From left) Hyunsik Hwang, CEO of LG U+, and Geungseon Ryu, CEO of Kakao Mobility ⓒ LG U+ and Kakao Mobility
The two companies plan to apply for a business combination review to establish a joint venture with the Fair Trade Commission in July. Afterwards, the company plans to complete the company establishment process by establishing a mission, brand name, business strategy and direction, and securing human resources within the year. LG Uplus will hold a 50% + 1 share, and Kakao Mobility will hold a 50% stake.
LG U+ and Kakao Mobility have a strategy to take a leading position by strengthening the competitiveness of electric vehicle charging services in the ‘Spring and Autumn Warring States Period’ where internal combustion engines are rapidly shifting to electrification and digitalization, and no clear market leader has yet appeared.
In the past few years, the number of electric car users has been rapidly increasing due to government support policies and industrial technology development to expand the supply of electric vehicles. In fact, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, 164,000 units will be newly registered in 2022 alone, and as of the end of that year, the number of electric vehicles in Korea will record about 390,000 units, and the total will exceed 4.2 million units by the end of 2030.
On the other hand, the speed of expansion of electric vehicle charging infrastructure is not keeping up with the growth rate of the electric vehicle market, which is the biggest obstacle to popularization of electric vehicles, the company explained. In addition, efficiency problems of existing charging stations due to inadequate charger operation and follow-up management and fragmented charging infrastructure were pointed out as major inconveniences to users.
LG Uplus and Kakao Mobility are aiming to provide ‘customer experience that enables convenient charging immediately when they want’ and ‘new values that have not existed before such as safety and personalization’ by concentrating the capabilities of both companies to spread the insufficient electric vehicle charging infrastructure and provide government It is a policy to take the lead in achieving carbon neutrality (net-zero) by 2050.
Previously, the two companies have strengthened their human and technical capabilities with the goal of expanding the electric vehicle charging business. Following the launch of the electric vehicle charging service “VoltUp” earlier this year, LG U+ acquired LG HelloVision’s electric vehicle charging service “Hello Plugin” and unified and operated the service, merging the capabilities of the two companies.
Kakao Mobility has been continuously expanding smart functions such as simple payment, charger location search, real-time notification of charger usage history, and charger status display since introducing electric car charging service on the Kakao Navi app in 2021.
With the establishment of this joint venture, it is possible to combine LG U+’s nationwide large-scale infrastructure construction and operation capabilities and Kakao Mobility’s MaaS (Mobility as a Service) platform operation know-how, so that charging infrastructure operation management, convenience services linked to the platform, etc. The two companies expect great synergies.
Hwang Hyun-sik, CEO of LG Uplus, said, “First of all, we will focus on the apartment housing market, where the expansion of electric vehicle charging infrastructure is the most urgent area, quickly secure service coverage, and increase customer loyalty through customer experience innovation.” “We will evolve into a ‘smart energy platform’ that optimizes supply and demand in the V2G (Vehicle to Grid) and V2X (Vehicle to Everything) markets in the future by securing a service ecosystem and operating platform.”
Kakao Mobility CEO Ryu Geung-seon said, “Through this joint venture, we intend to solve various problems that we had to face when using existing chargers through platform technology.” We want to evolve into a company that leads the transition era.” ciokr@idg.co.kr
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