Hong Kong-based private equity fund Affinity has acquired Lotte Rental.

Hong Kong-based private equity fund Affinity has acquired Lotte Rental.
Affinity has already acquired SK Rent-A-Car. As a result, Chinese capital has occupied the Korean rental car market. There are two reasons why Affinity entered the Korean rental car market so aggressively.

1. Short term: Prepare a bridgehead for Chinese manufacturers (BYD, etc.) to enter Korea.
When BYD declared its entry into the domestic market, China dominated the rental car market. This is by no means a coincidence. If a rental car company purchases a large amount of BYD vehicles and operates a rental car business at an affordable price, customers who are hesitant to purchase can use Chinese electric vehicles relatively easily. As the number of Chinese electric vehicle users increases, word of mouth goes out, and the number of buyers can increase rapidly.

2. Long term: entering the robo-taxi.
China appears to be preparing for the future by looking at it. Car rental companies are practically identical to robotaxi companies that are already prepared because they already have various licenses and have extensive vehicle operation know-how.
There is a high possibility that Chinese electric vehicles and Chinese autonomous driving software will be used at this time as well.
(There will be competition with Tesla, but it's such a big market that it's huge even if they share it.)

If China achieves both goals, the Hyundai Motor Company will be in serious trouble. It is taking a rest at a shelter called a hybrid, exhausted from the race to convert electric vehicles (EVs) because of the heavy sandbags of unions and labor costs.
Meanwhile, Tesla and Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers have already arrived at the finish line.
If you want to win a bronze medal even by ranking third, you must focus on research and development of electric vehicles, innovate processes, reduce manpower, and license FSD first. (The future of electric vehicles is questionable, but that's how the current trend is going.)
Nobody thinks it's going to be possible in our country. It's a country that promotes Povia for electric cars, has to procure parts up to 3rd vander for building a car, has never had union headbands undone, and makes fun of Elon Musk.

The automobile industry is an absolute industry in our country's jobs and GDP. It is terrible to imagine this industry collapsing.
But that is becoming a reality.