| Hyundai enlists hybrid fleet in COVID-19 fight |
Los Angeles may be known as the City of Angels, but sometimes it’s the front-line heroes themselves who need assistance. Hyundai Motor Group has launched an initiative to provide it.
MoceanLab, the group’s mobility service venture, has made a fleet of six Hyundai and Kia hybrids available to local organizations through its LA Heroes Fleet program. It’s one of several initiatives Hyundai Motor has launched to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
One beneficiary of the program is the Street Medicine Team at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine.
According to the team’s website, street medicine is a form of health and social services for unsheltered homeless populations that includes providing on-site health care and other forms of assistance, such as shoveling snow off a person’s tent. The vehicles will allow the team to provide “a full spectrum of services, including COVID-19 tests,” Hyundai said.
The automaker also provided vehicles to South LA Cafe, which has been working with the city of Los Angeles to provide food and groceries to South Central Los Angeles residents during the pandemic.
The business planned to use the vehicles to deliver food to seniors and other vulnerable residents, “enabling them to remain safe and indoors,” Hyundai said. South LA Cafe also planned to deliver grocery boxes to nonprofits, COVID-19 testing sites and residents, the automaker said.
The program started June 26 for South LA Cafe and June 29 for the Street Medicine Team and will continue until “the COVID-19 situation improves in Los Angeles,” according to a Hyundai spokesperson.
“We recognized the critical need for safe and hygienic transportation during the pandemic and wanted to offer an innovative mobility solution, particularly for front-line workers,” said Kyounglim Yun, Hyundai’s executive vice president and head of open innovation strategy.
“We will continue to work closely with the city of Los Angeles to find more opportunities to make a positive impact in the region.”
Hyundai started MoceanLab in 2019. It operates a short-term rental service pilot, Mocean Carshare, in downtown L.A.
— Krystal Hur
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