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Kia Charge, which provides access to over 700,000 charging points in Europe, has reached 100,000 subscribers in just two and a half years.
The service was launched alongside the Kia EV6 in September 2021. With access to chargers across 28 countries in Europe, 60% of Kia EV buyers now use the service.
Martin Enthofer, director customer experience strategy and solutions at Kia Europe, said: “The rising popularity of Kia Charge is proof that the consolidated one-contract concept is exactly what customers need, helping them to easily access charging stations where and when they want.
“The service also offers full price transparency, without any hidden expenses, for a charging network that continues to grow every week.”
Kia Charge allows for a single service for charging, including route planning, authentication, account management and payment.
Customers choose the tariff that is most suitable. The subscription options are “Easy”, a no-subscription pay-as-you-go option, or “Plus” for intensive usage.
The service has delivered a combined total of over two million charging sessions. These customers have used either their card or activated the charging process through the app.
Kia Charge and the Kia EV Route Planner work together as the navigation system detects charging stations along the route and adds them as waypoints automatically.
Through its partnership with IONITY, Kia will support the expansion of high power charging stations to more than 17,000 by 2030.
Kia also expects to explore other solutions that will take advantage of bidirectional charging, such as Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) and Vehicle-to-Home (V2H).