Socar said on Oct. 26 it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Softberry to pilot a linked parking and charging service. It will run an operational test for about 3 months in some areas of Seoul. The two companies decided to bundle the services, saying parking and charging intersect in EV users’ daily routines.

Everyone’s Parking Lot will launch an EV-only product that adds Softberry’s charging payment service, EV Pay, charging benefits to monthly parking passes. As it is a pilot, the number of eligible parking lots and product quantities will be limited. Users in the relevant areas will be notified via app push notifications when sales begin. If the bundled product is not shown in the app’s monthly parking pass list, the parking lot is not eligible.

After purchasing the product, users can use 600 kWh per month at charging stations in the parking lot once they complete service registration and receive a charging card. The 600 kWh can cover about 3,000 km on average, depending on the vehicle model. Softberry will provide the charging benefits and issue the charging card.

Socar described the pilot as an extension of its strategy to expand EV use. It signed an agreement with LG Electronics in 2024 and has been working in Jeju to help build an artificial intelligence-based charging station. In January this year, it began South Korea’s first rental-car V2G demonstration under a regulatory sandbox special case. It is verifying a V2G business model that sells electricity from EVs back to the power grid using 15 bidirectional chargers at the Jeju Socar Terminal.

Socar, which joined the Environment Ministry’s K-EV100 declaration in 2021, is increasing the number of EVs it operates every year. In 2023, it became the first in the car-sharing industry to win approval for an external carbon-credit project. In a reduction project 추진한 with Hushi Partners, it received government certification in September for reductions of 306 tonnes. The company said it was the first case in which reductions achieved through a mobility platform were officially recognised.

The two companies will jointly analyse user satisfaction data during the pilot period. Based on the results, they will review follow-up cooperation, including expanding eligible parking lots, cross-inflow of customers between the two companies, and improving the efficiency of charging infrastructure use.

Noh Hyun-cheol (노현철), head of Everyone’s Parking Lot, said, "We noted that most EV drivers see the place where they park their cars every day as effectively the same as a place to charge." He added, "To provide user-centred eco-friendly mobility services, we plan to closely analyse user responses during the pilot period and expand the target areas going forward."