PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s leading car-rental app SOCAR is confident of its growth prospects this year, bolstered by promising numbers it achieved across 2022.
It noted Malaysians are increasingly embracing the sustainable mobility solution that SOCAR offers.
“Even as Malaysia relaxed travel restrictions, SOCAR’s service offerings proved appealing to drivers, enabling the company to record (a) healthy growth in 2022,” it said in a statement today.
SOCAR recorded robust month-on-month growth, with a 60% increase in users, from 5,000 during the conditional movement control order (CMCO) period in 2020 in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic to over 20,000 when travel restrictions were lifted.
Support services such as the SOCAR-2-You delivery and pickup services also saw a rise in demand. The 24-hour pickup only service, introduced in December 2022 is the latest in its range of services to elevate the end-to-end shared mobility experience for users.
To further cater to a growing customer base, the company has expanded the range of car models in its fleet to more than 40, including compact, sedan, hatchback, SUV and MPV options to suit a variety of lifestyles and use cases. It has also optimised the number of its car park zones to ensure ample availability across the country.
Another milestone was its expansion to Kota Kinabalu, joining existing locations in the Klang Valley, Penang, Ipoh, Seremban, Melaka and Johor Bahru.
In the nine months since arriving in Kota Kinabalu, SOCAR has seen over 2,000 bookings completed, which the company said is a “promising growth indicator” for East Malaysia.
“At a time when many are reevaluating their financial commitments, SOCAR offers drivers a convenient way to access a range of car models to suit their needs on demand while providing the possibility of living car-free the rest of the time.
“Car-sharing also offers another sustainable mode of mobility that reduces the number of private cars on our roads, complementing other means such as public transportation and e-hailing,” said SOCAR Mobility Malaysia CEO Shylendra Nathan.
The company stressed it is committed to adding improvements and new services to meet customer demand, refreshing the fleet as well as forming new collaborations to elevate sustainable mobility options.
SOCAR Mobility Malaysia is the holding company for SOCAR and Trevo, the largest people-to-people car sharing marketplace in Malaysia. The platform was launched in Malaysia in January 2018 as a joint venture between SK Holdings Co Ltd and SOCAR Korea.
In its Series B funding exercise in September 2021, SOCAR closed a covenant-based investment round of up to US$55 million (RM233.7 million) from South-Korea based EastBridge Partners and Sime Darby Bhd, to facilitate its expansion in Southeast Asia.