A fleet of 50 Volkswagen Polo 1.6 will be made available to the general public under SOCAR, the car-sharing service where people can use several types of cars via a smartphone application. These will be in use in and around the Klang Valley at the moment and is another form of ride-sharing. This time, you actually rent the whole car and drive it yourselves rather than the Grab, or Uber (now defunct in Malaysia) where you get someone and his car to drive you anywhere you want to go.
SOCAR was launched in Kuala Lumpur officially just over three months ago. The new service is one of the business models that are now reshaping the way Malaysians think about mobility by leading the ‘multiflex movement’. You now have bicycle sharing, ride-sharing and now car sharing to choose from. Of course, sometimes, the brand's distributors themselves get involved in supplying the cars directly and in this case, Volkswagen Passenger Cars Malaysia (VPCM).
Erik Winter, Managing Director of Volkswagen Passenger Cars Malaysia (VPCM) said, “We are pleased to collaborate with SOCAR. Through this partnership, we are able to offer the members of the public easy access to Volkswagen cars and have them enjoy its German engineered capabilities. The Polo is perfect for city driving, though it may be small in stature it offers a dynamic drive without compromising on safety and comfort,”
21 Volkswagen Polo cars have been delivered to date with the remaining 29 due by mid-May. The Polo 1.6 hatchback comes equipped with a 1.6-litre 105PS petrol injection 16-Valve Multi Point Injection (MPI) engine and a 6-speed automatic transmission with Tiptronic, the Polo 1.6 comes with a maximum torque of 153Nm available at a low 3800rpm with fuel consumption at 6.3L per 100km. This is the most basic of all the Volkswagen cars available here in Malaysia and we personally think that this is the most reliable of them all and good enough for most of your needs. It makes sense for SOCAR to use this as one of the cars it provides to its car-sharing customers.
“The beauty of the car-sharing model is that as a member, you have several types of cars at your fingertips serving your different needs from a leisurely cruise out of the city to a trunk heavy trip to Ikea,” says Chief Executive Officer of SOCAR Malaysia, Leon Foong.
The SOCAR app is available for download from the App Store and Google Play Store. At the moment, the Volkswagen Polo is priced starting from RM13.90 per hour for the month of May 2018. This sum is inclusive of petrol and comprehensive insurance.
We have tested the Volkswagen Polo 1.6 before. Click here if you are interested to read about it.
For more information on this car-sharing service, please visit www.socar.my
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