SoCar envisions EV-full fleet in car-sharing by 2030 despite dismal IPO results

[Source: SoCar]

South Korea’s app-based car-sharing pioneer SoCar aims to make up its fleet entirely with electric vehicles by 2030 in partnership with local industry No. 1 charging service provider Everon in spite of stumble in financing from subdued IPO.

The two companies announced on Wednesday that they have agreed to cooperate to expand charging station network across Korea and upgrade EV charging and car-sharing services through the active exchange of their knowhow and accumulated data on EV charging information including EV charging time and battery capacity.

Their partnership began in 2018 with a charging service for compact EVs and later expanded to support the launch of SoCar’s EV car-sharing service. The latest partnership will pave the way for their grand plan to expand the country’s EV charging services and related infrastructure needed for the mobility industry’s fast shift towards EV100, the global eco-friendly vehicle initiative to fight against climate change.

The expanded partnership will drive SoCar’s transition into an EV car-sharing company under a plan to replace all of its cars with EVs by 2030.

[Source: SoCar]

Everon, the leading EV charging station provider in Korea, currently operates more than 17,000 EV chargers across the nation. It has been designated as a partner EV charging service provider of the country’ Ministry of Environment since 2017. It recently signed a strategic partnership MOU with Austrian battery pioneer Kreisel Electric to bring the latter’s advanced superfast EV charging units to Korea in the second half of this year.

SoCar’s ambitious mobility roadmap however has taken off on a weak note due to disappointing IPO process.

SoCar’s offering for initial shares drew only 42.4 billion won ($32.6 million) on the first day of public subscription following the dismal institutional demand in the competition ratio of 56 to 1.

SoCar cut its IPO price to 28,000 won apiece, 38 percent below the top end of its initial guideline of 34,000-45,000 won and offering scaled back by about 20 percent from the original volume of 4.55 million shares. Iitial market cap would stop at 966.5 billion won versus 1.6 trillion won earlier estimated at the top end of the original guidance.

SoCar's public subscription ends on Thursday. Underwriters are Mirae Asset Securities, Samsung Securities and Yuanta Securities.

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