Digital Parking Tech

London, UK / Frankfurt, Germany - Kia has launched CarPay, the brand’s in-car payment service that enables customers to pay for items and services from inside the vehicle, starting with the EV3. The first application available will be with Parkopedia, which helps drivers in Europe locate available parking and pay for it conveniently through the vehicle’s navigation screen. “Adding an in-car payment service is a significant advancement for customer convenience as software and connectivity continue to expand the capability of a vehicle,” said Sjoerd Knipping, Vice President Product & Marketing at Kia Europe. Though almost all journeys begin and end with a parking space, parking remains very challenging in big cities, with 92% of drivers finding it difficult to locate available parking spots across France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US. Any mistake with parking can be costly, with millions of parking tickets issued each year across Europe. This is especially problematic with electric vehicles, with 49% of EV drivers across France, Germany, Italy, and the UK receiving unexpected parking fines while charging. Parkopedia 2023 Global Driver Survey “Kia CarPay adds significant convenience and from launch helps to alleviate one of the key pain points for drivers, simplifying the process of finding and paying for parking,” said Hans Puvogel, COO at Parkopedia. “Not only does this reduce the amount of time drivers spend searching an area to locate an available space, but it also bypasses the frustrating process of having to find an operational parking machine or downloading various phone apps to try to activate and pay for parking sessions.” Parkopedia services are integrated into vehicle navigation systems for seamless operation and help drivers to find the nearest available parking spot at their destination, detailing the costs involved and predicting the likely number of available spots. Kia CarPay then enables the customer to pay for parking through a secure transaction via a securely stored payment card, with no additional apps necessary. Parkopedia’s parking payment service focuses primarily on outdoor and on-street parking, with the intention of expanding to indoor parking, such as parking garages, in the future. It currently provides access to more than 1.7 million transactable parking locations in 19 European countries. The EV3 and all future Kia models will feature Kia CarPay. This integrated system is a significant step for the brand towards expanding the range of in-car payments, add-on features, in-vehicle apps and electric vehicle-related use-cases. CarPay’s convenience for drivers is part of Kia’s commitment to enhancing the driving experience and improving customer satisfaction across all touchpoints of a journey. “Bringing an easy and streamlined payment method into the vehicle is a game-changer,” said Olivier Pascal, General Manager and Head of Connectivity, Kia Connect. “This is just the beginning, with CarPay set to expand in the future to include payments for a wide range of goods and services, to provide greater convenience for drivers and passengers.” About Kia Europe  Kia Europe is the European sales and manufacturing division of Kia Corporation – a global mobility brand that is creating innovative, pioneering, and leading sustainable mobility solutions for consumers, communities, and societies around the world. As a Sustainable Mobility Solutions Provider, Kia is spearheading the popularization of electrified and battery electric vehicles and developing a growing range of mobility services, encouraging people around the world to explore the best ways of getting around. Kia Europe, headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, employs in total over 5,500 employees from 40 nationalities in 39 markets across Europe and the Caucasus. It also oversees European production at the company’s state-of-the-art facility in Zilina, Slovakia.  Kia’s innovative products continue to attract great acclaim, notably the EV6 battery electric vehicle becoming the first Korean car to be named European Car of the Year in 2022. Further information can be found here: https://www.press-eu.kia.com/ About Kia Connect Kia Connect is a subsidiary of Kia Europe that delivers connected car services to Kia customers across 28 markets. Kia Connect services consists of in-car and app-based features designed to make driving a more intuitive experience, in addition to vehicle data products for use cases such as fleet management. Features include accurate traffic and ETA prediction, ‘best-in-class’ data provision, remote access to vehicle information, remote commands, and over-the-air software updates. About Parkopedia Parkopedia is the leading connected car service provider used by automakers, organizations and millions of drivers around the world. Parkopedia helps drivers find and pay for parking, EV charging, fuel, and tolls across 90 countries. Parkopedia is also developing highly detailed indoor maps and corresponding algorithms to help drivers and self-driving vehicles navigate to available parking spaces and EV chargers. Visit business.parkopedia.com for more information. Parkopedia Global Media Contact Adam Calland Marketing Director T: +44(0)7838219129 E: adam.calland@parkopedia.com Kia Europe Media Contact Pablo González Huerta Manager Public Relations & Communications T: +49 69 850 928 342 E: pghuerta@kia-europe.com The new board members are: Leo Pelle, CAPP, City of Boulder Stephanie Zakis, Colorado State University Chance Abbey, Spokane International Airport Tobias Marx, City of Bend PIPTA would also like to express its sincere gratitude to the departing board members for their invaluable contributions: Laura Lierz, CAPP, Reimagined Parking Casey Jones, CAPP, PMP, Flash Parking Mike Estey, City of Seattle Cindy Patton, City and County of Denver Emily Kwatinetz, Dixon Resources Unlimited Additionally, PIPTA would like to thank Sara Becraft, DOWL for her exceptional service and dedication as Chief Technology Officer (CTO). The Board of Directors has appointed Laura Lierz, CAPP to assume the role of CTO moving forward. About PlPTA The Pacific Intermountain Parking and Transportation Association (PlPTA) is a regional association dedicated to advancing the parking and transportation industry. PlPTA provides its members with education, networking opportunities, and resources to discuss common challenges, share information, and remain abreast of industry best practices.

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What comes next for parking, transportation, and mobility?

Here is the first question that needs to be answered: Who is your audience?  Are they visitors, commuters, students, downtown business owners and shoppers, or large companies. The more ways you provide for a parker to pay for your services the better customer service experience they will have?  Is the service I want to offer going to lead to confusion for my audience? If you add a feature or application to your current parking services will it be adopted and used frequently by your audience? Make sure that whatever service(s) you choose to adopt it will be received well by the audience you are providing these services for.  This would include pay on foot stations, parking meters, pay by phone application, and garage parking just to name a few. You need to know is your department’s financial goals. Is it to break even or to make money?  Make sure you understand your role, responsibility, and authority level when managing large revenues or changing the way you receive more revenue for your department.  Do your parking research. If you are signing a contract or buying equipment, you will need have involvement from purchasing and legal at the very beginning. There are a lot of items that get left out or over looked in a contract if you are not sure what to look for.   Research, research, research here are few guiding tools Ask as many questions with other parking professionals Demo the product for your others within your organization that will be effected if you add the service Visit a another parking operation that uses the product you are interested in Have the sales representative walk you through the customer’s experience, asked about maintenance, asked about any fees that are expected outside the contract. If you don’t ask the questions the right way (because you are not educated on the services enough) you won’t get the right answers you were seeking to make a good financial decision.  To be a good steward of the tax payer’s dollars, university dollars, airport dollars, you need to do your research!  Be prepared, be honest about what you don’t know and seek to understand all facts to make sure that you are improving the customer’s experience and meeting your financial goals! Michelle L. Wahl, CAPP, is the Parking Services Director for the City of Bloomington, IN. Michelle can be reached at michelle.wahl@bloomington.in.gov.

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