South Korea’s largest car-sharing service provider Socar has added premium electric vehicle Model S by Tesla Inc. to its fleet to allow its users to own them and share them when they don’t drive them.

Socar said on Wednesday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Tesla a day before to add Tesla’s Model S to its fleet as a long-term sharing model.

Under the partnership, the two companies aim to foster the growth of a sustainable and innovative car-sharing platform that allows its users, so-called partners, to rent cars for the long term on a monthly payment plan and share their cars with other Socar users when they don’t use their cars. They expect the new car-sharing plan would transform people’s lifestyle.

Under the plan, the more partners share their cars with other users, the higher discount rate on the car rental fee, Socar said. For instance, partner users would receive about 50 percent discount off a monthly fee if they share their cars with other users five times a month.

Socar said it has already delivered the first 20 units of Tesla Model S to partners registered for the long-term car-sharing program last month. The partners were allowed to choose car interior options and items to reflect their personal preferences, the company added.

Socar plans to offer a diverse range of car-sharing platforms that allow users to rent unique car models such as that of Tesla at a reasonable cost and share them with others. The company plans to introduce a personalized car-sharing service platform in the second half of this year that reflects various user preferences and offer various car options to partners at a reasonable cost.

By Lee Dong-in and Lee Eun-joo

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]