Parking Cloud to start EV charging service in parking garages

Parking Cloud’s electric vehicle (EV) charging service will be available at about 50 parking lots nationwide, according to its parent company SK E&S Wednesday.

An image of Parking Cloud’s electric car charging station [SK E&S]

The parking subsidiary of SK E&S will begin an electric car charging business, with a rising number of big-name companies joining the growing market.

Parking Cloud’s electric vehicle (EV) charging service will be available at about 50 parking lots nationwide, according to its parent company SK E&S Wednesday.

The goal is to push up the figure by 1,000 by the year’s end.

Parking Cloud is a parking lot management service provider 47 percent owned by SK E&S, an energy company of SK Innovation. SK E&S acquired the stake in 2021 for 178.5 billion won ($144.3 million). Its parking management service is available at more than 5,600 parking lots in Korea.

Customers will be able to make payments and check available charging spots through Parking Cloud’s app, according to SK E&S.

SK E&S said that it will work with other SK companies for the EV charging businesses. SK signet will supply charging systems to Parking Cloud and SK Telecom will provide modems to enable internet-of-things at the stations.

”As electric cars can be charged at any place with a charging system and needs more than 30 minutes to charge, parking lots have an immense potential to be the key to the future mobility energy business,” said an SK E&S spokesperson.

In March last year, SK E&S acquired EverCharge, an EV charging company based in California, as well.

Boosted by strong EV demand worldwide, a growing number of companies are entering the electric car charging business.

Hyundai Motor introduced its own EV charging station brand called E-pit in 2021. Moreover, Hyundai Motor Group, Lotte Corporation and KB Asset Management agreed to establish a joint venture to develop an EV charger with 200-kilowatt ultra-fast charging capabilities last year.

LG U+ also aims to roll out an EV charging service app in the first half of the year.

Domestic EV charging revenue is forecast to reach 2.5 trillion won by 2030, from last year’s 300 billion won, according to an IBK Securities report in November.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]