Lotte Rental vows to become mobility platform firm in Post-Covid era

[Photo provided by Lotte Rental Co.]

Lotte Rental Co., South Korea’s No. 1 car rental business under the country’s fifth largest conglomerate Lotte Group, vows to become a leading mobility platform company that maximizes customer value in lifestyle with eco-friendly and contactless businesses.

“Lotte Rental with own drive for environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) will add new value in the ‘use’ process of customers and lead the eco-friendly trend to become a mobility and lifestyle platform leader,” said Kim Hyun-soo, CEO of Lotte Rental, in his 2021 business strategy presentation on Monday.

“There’ll be the world B.C. (Before Corona) and the world A.C. (After Corona), and this year would be the baseline for the division,” Kim emphasized also in his New Year address, encouraging the company to accept the A.C. world as new normal and bring non-face-to-face formats to all business areas.

Lotte Rental suggested “value economy, at home, lifestyle platform, un-tact, and eco-friendly” as the key words of its 2021 business strategy.

For value economy, it aims to reinvent itself as an integrated rental platform provider by maximizing the customer value with focus on B2B business platform and B2C mobility platform.

Amid fast changes in ways of customers’ shopping and workplace, the company is promptly shifting its rental business structure that focuses more on online services. As part of efforts, it is seeking to expand a list of services and products that can be rented to customers, such as home office subscription service.

With an emphasis on contactless services, Lotte Rental earlier unveiled the industry’s first long-term new car rental service that all the process is made online, dubbed Sinchajang Direct. The company now is planning to expand the membership service for car maintenance and customer benefits in the first half of the year.

In the eco-friendly sector, Lotte Rental is already leading the trend with the launch of its electric vehicle long-term rental service for the first time in Korea. Of the total EV sales of 32,000 units at home in 2019, 8 percent or 2,550 units were made via Lotte Rental. The company’s cumulative orders for EV reached 8,200 units until 2020.

Lotte Rental also forged an EV business partnership with GS Caltex in September last year. Under the partnership, it plans to release an EV-exclusive product within the first half.

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