EV Rental Cars in Jeju, South Korea.

[JejuSoul]

Jeju island is a popular tourist destination for many Koreans.
Most hire rental cars for their visit. EV rentals are becoming increasingly popular.
SK has its own rental company.
I see a lot of these cars at the moment, with the slogan "Powered by SK battery" written on the back.

 

[JejuSoul]

The EV rental car I am seeing a lot of this summer is the I oniq EV
It seems Lotte Rental Car has bought a lot of them.

 

[JejuSoul]

Saw my first Chevy V olt in Jeju. It's a rental car.
The guy was trying to charge, but didn't have an L2 cable.
The rental company only gave him an L1 trickle c harger.
I plugged him in with my cable. It worked.

 

[JejuSoul]

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Seems Lotte Rental has just made a big order for the I oniq EV. 6,000 cars. That's the entire production run for the next 4 months.

http://view.asiae.co.kr/news/view.htm?idxno=2016111514560501608

 

[SoulEV2016]

:shock: 6k ?!? Well, you have a contrat to honor on this island (0 petrol engine on 2030).

 

[JejuSoul]

There is a case study of EV rentals on the tourist island of Okinawa, Japan. They had 220 Nissan L eaf rentals. The project was called "Eco-resort Island Okinawa Promotion Project", and began in 2011. It was a flop because of under-use. The cars were in use less than 10% of the time.
The case study was done 3 years later in 2014.

Nissan LEAF Brings Eco-Friendly Tourism to Okinawa - 220 units to serve as rental cars within the Prefecture

Nissan says that the units delivered in Okinawa are part of a fleet of 500 vehicles destined to be deployed throughout Japan in 2010, to be used as rental cars. Nearly 40 percent of that number went to Okinawa because the region is a tourist magnet, with some six million coming there every year.

https://youtu.be/g0r1riOLyr0

The case study on Okinawa rental cars: Electric Vehicle Rental Services: Project in Okinawa, Japan

And an even worse article about the failure of EV taxis in Osaka - Osaka's great EV taxi experiment does a slow burnout

I guess one reason these cars are under-used are because they are 3 times the price to rent compared to similar ice vehicles.
These are current prices - Nissan L eaf in Okinawa - $110 USD for a day.

Cost for Nissan Note, Honda Fit, Mitsubishi Mirage

I just checked the price for renting a Soul EV on Jeju island. The standard price is about the same $115 USD for a day.
(There's no English translation for this site - Soul EV is 쏘울 전기차 - 133,000 KRW)

But if you look for the daily offers you can find a better price. Soul EV is $17 USD for a day.

 

[JejuSoul]

The Okinawa EV Rental business has failed. It is no longer possible to rent the L eaf or the i Miev.
The only rental EV on Okinawa is this Toyota Tricycle.



Here in Jeju, however the EV Rental business is expanding rapidly. I mentioned above the 6,000 I oniq EVs. There are also a lot of Soul EVs too.
Here's a line of brand new rental cars on Udo Island this morning.



I didn't rent the Soul, instead I took an Electric Tricycle.

 

[SoulEV2016]

For a tiny island like Udo, the tricycle is a good choice (more easy to park).

 

[JejuSoul]

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There are now 100 Soul EVs to rent on Udo Island. An amazing number for such a small island.
For more info see - http://view.asiae.co.kr/news/view.htm?idxno=2017032008394186181



The charging infrastructure on Udo. There are 8 altogether

 

[JejuSoul]

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Have just rented a 2012 Ray EV as a second car. Am still keeping the Soul EV, of course. Am waiting for something better to come along so that the Soul EV will become my second car. Back in 2014 SK Rental inherited 30 Ray EVs from SK Networks when the smart grid test project ended. They rented these to tourists for a couple of years, but now just have a few left as staff cars. They were very surprised I wanted one. I have a cheap monthly rent, which I can cancel any time I want. Big advantage to this, this car is out of warranty, and I have no idea on the reliability. Easy to guess though that the parts may be expensive. Interestingly unlike some of the other rental companies on the island which have just invested heavily on the I oniq EV. SK Rental has chosen the V olt PHEV as its latest green car.

Here's how they looked in 2012. I test drove one of these at the Smart Grid test center. Logo on the side is SK Networks.



And here's the one I now drive. The sticker on the back 'Powered by SK battery' is still there. BTW having one for a few days is completely different from a few minutes or even few hours test drive. It would be great if it was possible to rent any EV for a month before buying, to check it out. If you buy it rental cost will be cancelled.

 

[SoulEV2016]

I like this car, too ... for city and parking (Key car shape from japan market).

 

[JejuSoul]

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One feature I like on the Ray EV - a very funny efficiency screen. You get more baby penguins if you drive carefully. If you drive badly the ice melts and you lose baby penguins.



Maximum penguin efficiency = 5 babies



On the Soul EV we get more leaves on the tree.



On the Nissan L eaf you get more trees.



On the I oniq you just get a boring bar chart..

 

[tractioninc]

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One feature I like on the Ray EV - a very funny efficiency screen. You get more baby penguins if you drive carefully. If you drive badly the ice melts and you lose baby penguins.

Hysterical. That's a little morbid, but funny indeed.

 

[SoulEV2016]

well, penguin can swim ... so, no, it's not morbid.
but, yeah, i like penguin animation over trees, for sure. :mrgreen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7wN0g7NZQw

:shock: she has fish ... instead of penguins !

 

[JejuSoul]

... :shock: she has fish ... instead of penguins !

There's a choice of penguins, polar bears, fish or deer.

 

[JejuSoul]

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Most of the rental cars are I oniqs but there's a few B olt EVs around.
The Titanium Soul EV is also a rental. Mine is the Ray EV. These 2 are blocking the Tesl a stalls!



Here's the latest c harger map.

 

[JejuSoul]

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I mentioned few months ago that there were 100 rental Soul EVs on the tiny Udo island. Also 1000+ Electric tricycles. It turns out that this is too many, and the local farmers are complaining about the constant traffic congestion. The government is now trying to limit the number of rental cars to 30, and substantially reduce the number of tricycles.

I have been seeing many of the Udo rental cars here on Jeju island recently.

 

[JejuSoul]

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The rental car fleet on Jeju island this year has been boosted by many hundred's of K ona Electrics. I see them them everywhere.

But there are also a few Kia N iro EVs.