Hino Motors, Ltd. (headquarters: Hino City, Tokyo, President: Yoshio Shimo; hereinafter referred to as Hino Motors) and the Kansai Electric Power Company, Incorporated (headquarters: Osaka City, Osaka, President: Takashi Morimoto; hereinafter referred to as KEPCO) entered into a joint-venture agreement for starting up a new company named CUBE-LINX with the aim of resolving issues facing the transportation industry regarding adoption and operation of commercial e-mobility, such as trucks and buses (hereinafter referred to as e-mobility). We will contribute to the promotion of mobility in the industry by providing solutions for smooth use of e-mobility by taking full advantage of their benefits.
As companies are required to propel forward environmentally friendly business operations in all kinds of industries, it is essential to cut down on the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from vehicles on the road in order to make the transportation industry carbon neutral. While the number of e-mobility adopted is growing, issues facing the transportation industry are becoming apparent. For instance, the adoption of electric vehicles requires going through complicated processes with several business operators, including not only concluding contracts for vehicles, but installing charging facilities and concluding contracts for using electricity as well, which is an obstacle to electric vehicle adoption. Furthermore, meticulous management of vehicle operation and charging is necessary in daily operation in order to prevent a decline in the vehicle operating rate and electricity shortage when e-mobility are in operation due to charging inefficiency.
Hino Motors and KEPCO endeavor to offer solutions to issues in e-mobility adoption and operation by utilizing their knowledge of commercial vehicles and electricity through the newly founded company. Aiming to build a platform open to a variety of business operators, including vehicle manufacturers, equipment manufacturers, IT vendors, and power companies, we will provide packaged solutions optimized according to each user’s business model and purpose of using e-mobility as a one-stop service at a fixed monthly fee.
<Services>
- Support for e-mobility adoption
We offer hardware, such as vehicles and charging facilities, and IT systems required when adopting e-mobility at a monthly fee. - Management for optimizing e-mobility operation and energy use
By fusing operation management system with energy management system, we come up with optimal charging and vehicle allocation plans, map out routes to drive with the remaining battery capacity taken into account, and comprehensively manage electricity demand from offices and vehicles.
<Comments of President Shimo of Hino Motors>
“Maximizing the effect of power train electrification is one of the important perspectives for the whole society toward achieving carbon neutrality. Through cooperation with KEPCO, we would like to support customers’ environmentally conscious business operations and contribute to making the transportation industry carbon neutral by offering comprehensive solutions ranging from assistance in adopting e-mobility to management that helps users operate vehicles reliably every day.”
<Comments of President Morimoto of KEPCO>
“Our company is making various efforts regarding both supply and demand of energy aiming to realize a zero-carbon society. This project with Hino Motors, Ltd. is a pioneering endeavor in that regard. Through this project, we would like to contribute to popularizing e-mobility by building a platform fully open to business operators and offering customers long-term, one-stop support from e-mobility adoption to daily vehicle operation as a service provider.”
We will expand the service and grow the business while cooperating with multifarious partners in related industries and keeping pace with development of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in logistics. The platform will cover all kinds of commercial vehicles in the future, including operation management of self-driving vehicles. We will contribute to prosperity of customers’ businesses and the transportation industry, and sustainable growth of society as a whole through popularization of e-mobility from a user’s perspective and comprehensive optimization of commercial vehicle operation.
Overview of the new company
| Company Name | CUBE-LINX Co., Ltd. |
|---|---|
| Address | 34th floor of Shinjuku Nomura Building, 1-26-2 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo |
| Paid-in Capital | ￥500 million (Hino Motors: 66.7%, KEPCO: 33.3%) |
| Representative Director | President & CEO Tsuyoshi Kiriake (Hino Motors) |
| Founded in | Early May of 2021 |
| Start of Business Operation | Scheduled at the beginning of 2022 |
| Business | Development and operation of a commercial mobility-based platform, provision of management services |
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