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- Purchasing shares of CARANG, the No.1 domestic O2O on-site vehicle maintenance company, to launch on-site maintenance service
- Ranging from maintenance to comprehensive vehicle management based on maintenance history to take up a notch the level of maintenance service
- “SK rent-a-car will vault into a comprehensive vehicle management platform offering plenty of services such as on-site charging for EVs”

SK rent-a-car (CEO: Hwang Il-moon) said on the 11th that it invested in ‘CARANG’ (CEO: Lee Dae-hyung, Park Jong-kwan), the No.1 on-site vehicle maintenance company in Korea, to enhance customer value.

Established in 2015, CARANG is an operator of the O2O (Online to Offline) platform dedicated to on-site vehicle maintenance. It runs a brand called ‘Carsuri’ rendering on-site car repair services. It means that professional car maintenance workers visit in person any place and any time customers want to offer basic repair services such as engine oil-related or battery-related repairs for all vehicle types including domestic and foreign cars. This service relieves people from the hassle of visiting repair shops and saves times, which appeals to customers in their 20s to 40s.

SK rent-a-car plans to embark on on-site vehicle maintenance service, and at the same time, expand its scope of service from B2B to B2C through the investment in CARANG’s O2O platform.

In addition to the on-site repair service, the company also plans to launch ‘Pick-up maintenance’ which is to move a vehicle to a nearby maintenance shop for repair service depending on circumstances. With the operation of ‘comprehensive management service’ which tracks maintenance history, SK rent-a-car will encourage drivers to have proper habits in terms of vehicle management and also prevent excessive maintenance, thereby bringing a smarter car life to customers.

The company plans to broaden the range of the service beneficiaries to reach out to customers who are not renting cars from it. Through ‘Smartlink,’ the comprehensive vehicle management solution developed using its source technology, SK rent-a-car will solidify its stature as a leading p_ in the automotive aftermarket.

An SK rent-a-car official said, “the survey found that B2B customers favor systematic vehicle management of repair company while B2C customers wants to receive the service at the time and place they want. Based on the investment, we will render a service with a concept of family doctor for vehicles in which we visit in person to provider maintenance services when needed.”

He added, “leveraging CARANG’s know-how on on-site vehicle management service, SK rent-a-car will launch a variety of EV-related services such as on-site charging or on-site car wash, thereby growing as a comprehensive vehicle management platform brining more convenient mobility life to customers.”

In the meantime, SK rent-a-car has invested in and worked together with Softberry, the company operating ‘EV Infra’, the No.1 application for EV charging-related information in Korea, ‘TeamO2’, the operator of ‘Car More’ the domestic top application for car rental price comparison, and ‘EVAR’ a provider of mobile EV charging service in order to identify new growth engines as well as to innovate business models.

[Photo 1] SK rent-a-car CI