South Korea Now Offers Electric Vehicle Rentals With Rollout of 184 Kia Ray EVs

The capital of South Korea, Seoul, now seeks to push electric vehicles via an EV rental program is kicked off on May 9.

Dubbed the "Electric Vehicle Sharing" (no, it's not a creative name) program, Seoul now offers an astonishing 184 Kia Ray EVs for rent at a rate of $5 per hour.

Lee No-seong, deputy director of the Seoul government’s green transportation policy team, had this to say of the program:

"Car sharing will help ease traffic congestion and environmental pollution given that vehicles are responsible for 58% of air pollutants."

That'll certainly entice some to at least give electric vehicles a try, if only for an hour or two.

The EV rental program is quite simple.  Drivers can pick up a Ray EV at one of several parking lots across the city. Charging at any of the 212 station (28 are of the quick-charge variety) is free and the rental expenses include insurance costs.  All residents need to do is register for the program and, so far, 15,000 have.

That's not a typo.  Seoul reports that within two weeks, 15,000 area residents register to take part in the electric Kia Ray sharing program.  15,000!!!