In a boost to their existing strategic partnership in mobility services, Hyundai Motor Group and Grab has decided to focus on accelerating EV adoption in Southeast Asia.
The group’s affiliates – Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Corporation, along with Grab, will further develop new pilots and initiatives that lower the barriers of entry for Grab driver and delivery-partners to adopt EVs. This will include lowering the total cost of ownership and reducing range anxiety, which the group acknowledges are key to greater EV adoption.
The two organisations had entered a partnership in 2018 to launch a series of EV pilots in Southeast Asia. Its first pilot, launched in Singapore in 2019, saw the deployment of 200 Hyundai Kona EVs in Grab's GrabRentals fleet in Singapore. In Indonesia, Grab launched its GrabCar Elektrik fleet of Hyundai IONIQ vehicles at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airport in 2020.
Survey results from the Singapore pilot found that high costs, lack of charging locations and long waiting times for charging are top barriers hindering Grab driver-partners from adopting EVs. The enhanced partnership will focus on piloting new EV business models, including leasing EVs with a battery-as-a-service model or car-as-a-service model, and EV financing.
Building a roadmap
As per the new agreement, pilot programmes will start in 2021, beginning in Singapore, and expand to Indonesia and Vietnam.
As part of the roadmap development, the two parties will also conduct an EV feasibility study to gain a deeper understanding into the gaps and barriers to wider EV ownership and adoption. In addition, in line with Hyundai Motor Group's latest future strategy, both parties will explore collaboration in new business opportunities and technologies such as smart city solutions.
“With Grab having the largest driver network in the region and Hyundai's comprehensive mobility solutions, we are confident that together we can help to increase the adoption of EVs and ultimately reduce carbon emissions throughout the region,” Minsung Kim, Vice President of the Innovation Division at Hyundai Motor Group.
Russell Cohen, Group Managing Director of Operations, Grab, said, “As government EV policies and incentives are implemented and essential infrastructure like charging stations continue to be built, this partnership will provide insights and best practices on the usage of EVs as part of the day-to-day operations of driver and delivery-partners.”
Interestingly, the partners have piloted ways to reduce driver-partners’ downtime by enabling them to swap their e-moped batteries at GrabKitchen, while they wait to collect food orders.
The enhanced partnership will also explore collaboration in new business opportunities and technologies such as smart city solutions, said the company.
Focus on future mobility
The Hyundai Motor Group has expanded its presence in Southeast Asia to foster new mobility innovation. In October last year, the Group broke ground to build the Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Center in Singapore (HMGICS), which will act as a test-bed for a human-centred intelligent manufacturing platform with a small-scale EV production facility on site.
Meanwhile, through its partnership with the SP Group in Singapore, Grab has leveraged driving data to advise on ideal charging locations, based on driver locations and demand heat maps. In Indonesia, the company had launched the Electric Vehicle Ecosystem Roadmap in 2019 with the Indonesia government to support EV policies, and help achieve the government's target of 20% of Indonesian transportation being EVs by 2025.