Wible, KIA's carsharing service, will arrive in Europe in 2018

The urban mobility sector is completely changing the approach of car manufacturers, who do not want to be left without their share of the new cake that is starting to be divided up through the new services being created.

Thus, Daimler, the group that owns Mercedes and Smart, opened the way with Car2go. The PSA Group (Citroën, Peugeot, DS and Opel) followed suit with eMov, and the alliance (Renault, Nissan, Dacia) has just joined in thanks to the collaboration between the brand with the diamond and Ferrovial with Zity. Others, such as BMW, work with Uber and already have their own service (DriveNow, although they have not yet launched it in Spain), or are about to do so, as is the case with SEAT, which will activate its own this year, 2018.

And now it is KIA that has just announced its intention to take its share on the occasion of its presence at the CES in Las Vegas and within its vision of the future of mobility, presented under the concept Boundless for all (Unlimited for everyone) that the Korean brand has been developing.

During this same year, 2018, KIA plans to start the activity of WIBLE, its own carsharing service, whose activity began in 2017 in the South Korean market. KIA has already registered the name of its new brand in Europe and plans to launch the service in various European cities and markets.

Initially, the vehicles KIA will use in its carsharing service will be both the electric Soul and the hybrid version of the Niro, depending on the city or market and the model chosen, according to the type of business developed in each city. In fact, in Seoul, where WIBLE is already operational, one of the models used is the Carnival MPV, which indicates that the Korean carsharing operator could, at the right time, also offer models fitted with combustion engines, although for the Spanish market it is most likely that the entire WIBLE fleet will be electric.

The name WIBLE is the acronym resulting from the words Wide Accessible (Widely accessible), with which the Korean brand wants to convey its commitment to open mobility for all users at all times. KIA plans to expand this service to other markets around the world over the coming years, hence the announcement during the CES in Las Vegas.

One of the features that will distinguish the models the Korean brand will use in WIBLE from the models other operators use in theirs is that all the vehicles devoted to the WIBLE service will be equipped with a wide range of active safety technologies, since KIA wants all its customers to complete their journeys safely in a car with which they may not be familiar.

Wible will be accessible through an app on the smartphone, just like the rest of the carsharing services we know. The only thing that will change compared with the Korean version is that it will not be necessary to return the vehicle to the same place where it was picked up, as a one-way trip will be possible.

KIA will announce the first European locations for the launch of WiBLE later in 2018.