Hyundai Motor Group said on the 28th it will launch a pilot project to separate electric-vehicle batteries from the vehicle body and offer them on a subscription basis.
The pilot project for the battery subscription service led by Hyundai Motor and Hyundai Capital targets corporate taxis whose warranty expires in the first half of this year. The project is based on a regulatory sandbox exception approved by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's mobility review in Nov. last year for "separate registration of ownership of an EV body and battery."
Hyundai Motor will run a battery subscription service for five Ioniq 5 vehicles used as corporate taxis in the greater Seoul area. Through this, the company plans to examine how separating ownership of the battery and body affects EV operating expense and vehicle utilization period in real-world conditions.
Corporate taxis participating in the pilot will pay a monthly subscription fee to Hyundai Capital during the subscription period. When a battery replacement is needed, they will return the battery in use and receive a battery owned by Hyundai Capital. This type of service operates on a subscription basis rather than battery purchase.
Corporate taxis rack up high mileage even over short periods. Battery performance degrades quickly and replacement demand arises fast. Hyundai Motor Group plans to verify whether this pilot can ease expense burdens and extend vehicle operating periods.
The current Motor Vehicle Management Act does not establish a system to register and manage batteries separately from EVs. As a result, depreciation burdens from battery performance degradation and replacement expense have been cited as factors limiting demand for EV purchases.
A Hyundai Motor Group official said, "Through this pilot, we will be able to see what effects battery ownership separation has in real operating environments," adding, "We will offer innovative finance and subscription products based on separated ownership of EV batteries to the market in the future to reduce consumers' burdens of purchasing and operating EVs."