7-Eleven partners with Mooving to install battery charging stations at convenience stores

By Kim Joo-heon Posted : January 19, 2022, 14:09 Updated : June 23, 2023, 01:31

[Courtesy of Mooving]

SEOUL -- Targeting South Korea's rapidly growing delivery market, eco-friendly mobility platform operator Mooving will provide electric motorcycle battery charging stations to the South Korean operator of global convenience store franchise 7-Eleven. The system will be test operated at two stores in Seoul, allowing electric motorcycle riders to charge or swap batteries.
 
About 30,000 food delivery workers ride gasoline engine motorcycles in Seoul. Motorcycles and trucks used for delivery services emit about 20 percent of carbon dioxide released in the capital city. However, electric motorcycles have been shunned by delivery workers because of their short traveling distance. The maximum traveling distance of clean-energy motorcycles is about 100 kilometers (62 miles), while an ordinary motorcycle courier delivery worker travels about 200 kilometers a day. It also takes more than three hours to fully charge electric motorcycles without modular batteries that can be swapped instantly.
 
Many consumers chose to deliver food instead of visiting crowded restaurants in 2020 when the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic swept across South Korea. According to the Fair Trade Commission, a state trade watchdog, South Korea's food delivery service market was estimated at 23 trillion won ($20.7 billion) in 2020, up sharply from 15 trillion won in 2017.
 
Mooving said in a statement on January 19 that the company signed an agreement with Korea Seven, the operator of 7-Eleven stores, to provide battery swapping stations (BSSs). The charging system will be operated at two 7-Eleven convenience stores in April 2022. After a test run, the number of charging stations will be gradually increased so that consumers can swap or charge battery modules.
 
"Hopefully, we can speed up the distribution of eco-friendly mobility services by popularizing our shared battery charging system using 7-Eleven's distribution network," Mooving CEO Lee Sang-myung was quoted as saying.
 
Various South Korean companies have focused on the adoption of electric motorcycles. KT Linkus, a battery-sharing mobility platform operator wing of South Korea's telecom company KT, is transforming old phone booths into electric motorcycle battery charging stations in Seoul and other cities. 
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