SK E&S moves into EV charging market

South Korea's liquefied petroleum gas supplier SK E&S said on Wednesday that its subsidiary Parking Cloud will begin electric vehicle charging services at 50 parking lots across the country.

Parking Cloud provides a one-stop solution that can be conveniently used from parking to charging with a single app. With its parking app "i-Parking," users can check charging information and make payments.

In the future, the company plans to simplify the charging authentication process by using license plate recognition technology and introduce a service that allows integrated payment of both parking and charging fees upon leaving the premises. Parking Cloud has a network of more than 5,600 directly-run and affiliated parking lots.

SK E&S plans to start an electric car charging business by utilizing Parking Cloud's parking lot network and pursue various mobility-based energy solution businesses.

"We plan to develop diverse future business models, such as a two-way charging business that utilizes electric vehicles as mobile energy storage systems and mobile high-speed charging services," said an SK E&S official.

Write to Ik-Hwan Kim at lovepen@hankyung.com