Hyundai inks pact with Japanese culture content firm for EV sales

Hyundai Motor said on Thursday it has signed an initial pact with a Japanese culture content company to promote sales of zero-emission vehicles in the neighbouring country.

Hyundai Motor signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Culture Convenience Club Co. (CCC) for partnerships in car-sharing mobility services, data-based marketing and an EV experience platform in Japan, the company said. "We expect the partnership between a mobility company and a content provider will generate new opportunities (in the Japanese market)," Hyundai Motor President and CEO Chang Jae-hoon said in a statement.

In the Mocean car-sharing services, Hyundai provides the all-electric IONIQ 5 equipped with Hyundai Motor Group's dedicated EV platform named E-GMP and its charging facility at the large-scale bookstore Daikanyama T-Site Tsutaya, operated by CCC, reports Yonhap news agency.

Hyundai also plans to promote its battery electric vehicles through joint marketing projects with CCC and to give Japanese consumers opportunities to experience its zero-emission cars through the EV experience program.

In May last year, Hyundai re-entered the Japanese market 12 years after leaving Japan due to poor sales, as rising demand for all-electric vehicles offers new opportunities in the market dominated by Toyota Motor Corp.

Hyundai advanced into Japan in 2001 but pulled out of the neighboring market in 2009 after selling a mere 15,000 gasoline cars during its first foray. Hyundai seeks to provide sustainable mobility to the market under the motto of Progress for Humanity. Japan is the market from which the company has to learn and into which the company has to explore, Chang said in February.

Hyundai has sold the Nexo hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicle and the IONIQ 5 midsize crossover through an online-only sales platform, without dealerships. The maker of Sonata sedans and Santa Fe SUVs plans to introduce two pure electric models by early next year -- the Kona Electric this fall and the high-performance IONIQ 5 N model early next year.

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