EV Scooter Rentals: Insights from Narendra Jha, Founder & CEO of EVA2Z

Gradually we are shifting to high speed because we also know it is recently France and in few other countries it has been banned, and I think in another 1 year, uh, low speed will be discontinued in India as well.

Welcome to Rethink What Matters, the podcast dedicated to aligning the economy and ecology with everyone for improved business performance, stronger families, and a greener, cooler planet. And today I'm joined by Narendra Jha, founder and CEO at EVA to Z, Noida, India. And we're going to be discussing EV scooter rentals. Welcome, Narindra.

Thank you. Thank you, Paul. Thank you for having me.

So Narindra, if you could tell us a little bit about EV A to Z first, please.

Yes, sir, Paul. We started our, this venture in September 2022. So it has been 1 year since we started. And currently we are having 350+ electric vehicles, 2-wheelers, which we are giving it to, giving to the companies, B2B companies like Zomato, Rapido, Uber, uh, Zomato, Rapido, Uber, Blinkit, Zepto. These are, these are a few companies in India, uh, which are into last mile delivery. So we, uh, the work that EV A to Z is doing is, uh, we are providing all-electric two-wheeler scooty on monthly rental basis to these companies. And the rental we take like every 15 days, twice a month we get the rental from these vehicles. Insurance, service, everything related to the vehicle is taken care by us. So the good thing with EV In vehicles, EV scooty rental is first, it is zero emission, no air pollution, no noise pollution is there, and above all, it is economical if we compare it with the IC engine vehicles. Okay, so this is, this is the, this is the big advantage of using electric vehicles as a last mile delivery and giving it to the riders on rental model.

Okay. And how many rental vehicles do you have out at any one time?

Currently we have 350 vehicles.

350?

In Delhi and CR. Yes, 350 vehicles.

Okay. And how many cities are you in?

Currently we are present in 5 cities. Our target is to reach 20,000 vehicles by March 31st, 2024.

March 31st, 2024.

Wow. Okay.

That's going to be rapid growth then. And what types of vehicles are you renting out?

There are two types of vehicles in Two Wheeler that we are renting. One is low speed. So low speed vehicles are those whose speed is up to 25 kilometers per hour. The benefit of using low speed vehicles is that it does not require driving license. You only have to, you know, wear helmet and that's it. So, so those riders who, who are not having their driver's license, they are also eligible to use our low-speed electric vehicles. So this is one model. Another model is high-speed vehicles. So high-speed vehicles, the speed is up to 60 km/h, but it needs, uh, driving license, helmet, uh, RTO, all the registration needs to be done. So these two vehicles in electric two-wheelers we are using right now.

So it's only scooters that you're renting out?

Correct. Low speed and high speed scooters.

I know the laws vary from one country to the next, don't they, with scooters?

Yes.

So I believe that recently in France, or in Paris at least, they banned them.

Low speed. Yeah, yeah, low speed. Actually, because of low speeds, few accidents. There are few challenges that is there with low speed because most of the low-speed riders are not that much skilled and they do, you know, few accidents and all. So gradually we are shifting to high speed because we also know it is recently France and in few other countries it has been banned. And I think in another 1 year low speed will be discontinued in India as well.

So you're only renting to businesses, is that right?

You're a B2B provider of Currently we are, we are renting to B2B only because as I told you, we do not have a demand problem because currently we have LOI of up to 35,000 vehicles from these companies. So, uh, so this is good thing because, uh, in this case like we provide 100 vehicles to one company and then payment gets— I mean, things are easier. Uh, our plan is to From B2B to B2C, we will go once our tech is ready and then we will launch it in a very focused manner. And like we will provide the vehicles to colleges, to schools. Not now, after 6 months.

Okay. And how long do they rent them for?

Generally, they rent it for sometimes 15 days. There are few riders who have taken vehicles from us 8 months back, 7 months back, and they, they come to us only for servicing or when there are any technical issues. So on an average, the riders, the riders, they take vehicles from us for minimum 1 month.

Are they quick to charge? Do they charge them up at home?

The vehicles that we have, they are in battery swap. So they have, once the vehicle gets discharged, like 10% of the charge is remaining, then they come to our swapping network network. We have our swapping network in these cities, and they— it takes hardly 15 minutes. They put the discharged battery in the swapping station, and then they take fully charged batteries in the scooty, and then they are good to go for another 50 to 55 kilometers.

Great. So how long did you— how long can they go on a single charge or a single battery, did you say?

Uh, single battery, they can go up to 60 kilometers. 55 to 60 kilometers.

Are you able to recharge your batteries with green energy?

We do recharge from the electricity that we get, and the source of electricity, it is in here in India, it is almost 50 to 60%, it is green energy, and 40% it is thermal. So I cannot tell you 100%, Every time the charge we do is green.

What problems do you typically find with these scooters?

These scooters that we are using, we started and we started, we took the scooters that are being used for household purpose, so they are not sturdy and then enough for to be used for commercial uses, because of which wear and tear is more. It needs more maintenance than it should.

And are your scooters being custom made for you, or are they a standard scooter that anybody can buy?

No, no, now we are in talk with two OEMs. They have taken the requirements from us and they are going to manufacture the vehicles as per our need. So our, our requirement is very simple. There has to be minimum plastic parts. It should be a steel frame so that it can run like 150 kilometers a day or 120 kilometers a day with minimum wear and tear. This is what our requirement is. It should not look great because look great, that is secondary for us. For us, it should, it should go, uh, 100+ kilometers in single charge, and the vehicle should be sturdy enough so that it has, you know, less wear and tear.

Right, okay. What other maintenance do these scooters require?

It has one motor, uh, it has a brake. So sometimes the brake levers or brake is there, then plastic parts, it, it breaks down in case of fire because here temperature is so high. Sometimes it is 42 degrees centigrade. Because of that, if there is rain, in case of rain The battery is low, so when it comes in contact with water, then it starts, you know, getting some problem. So again, then we have to, we have to bring those vehicles to our service center, and then we have to service those vehicles. So we, we have requested the OEMs to put the battery bit higher so that when there is rain, then we should not face issues that we are facing right now.

And, um, are there any government incentives or support free?

Yes, government incentive is there. Uh, the GST— GST is only 5%, whereas in other vehicles it is minimum 18% and up to like 28%, whereas in case of electric vehicles it is 5%. And also there is subsidy called FAME subsidy, like Fast Adoption of Mobility. So FAME subsidy, we get per kilowatt battery, we get few thousand rupees. Earlier it was 15,000 per kilowatt. Now they have reduced it, but still incentive is there. FAME 3 subsidy we call it. So that subsidy we get per vehicle when we purchase. So it is approximately Indian rupees 10,000 per vehicle.

Um, are they difficult to push? I mean, do you get many people, you know, coming in with flat batteries?

Uh, we have one system. Sometimes the battery run out, then there is one moving vehicles, it carries up to 18 batteries. So the riders, yeah, the riders, they will have to send us their location. And within like 2 hours, our vehicles reach there with fully charged battery.

But you don't track then your scooters by the sounds of it at the moment. So you don't know where they all are at any one time.

We have tracking devices installed in each vehicle. So we can track whether the vehicle is moving or stationary or it is parked or how much battery is remaining. And, um, and geofencing, we can do a number of things, um, because our telemetric device, the geo-tracking devices, are installed in each of the vehicles, right?

And is that, is that part of the service you offer your customers then?

This is for our, uh, because the vehicles are our asset. So although we give, we give it to the riders and they are, uh, earning. It is economical for them, so they are getting their benefit. But in case of— sometimes, sometimes it happens that the riders are unreachable. Yes, we, we are not able to contact them because of any kind of issue. So in that case, we track the vehicles, we track the vehicles, and then we send someone just to check what is happening. If the rider is not there, then we recover the vehicles, we bring it back to our And is that—

do you have a lot of competition in this market?

2-3 players are there. 2-3 players are there. So they are, they are into similar business. And demand is— I told you that hardly 4% demand has been fulfilled. So competitors are there, but we are not afraid of competitors because we, we are mainly focusing on our making our service better so that I mean, yeah, competition, 2-3 players are there, but their demand is huge. So there is nothing to, you know, it is a good thing to have competitors right now.

So how many, how many staff do you have? How many people do you employ?

So, so 15 full-time who are managing the operations and around 65, they are riders. They are using our vehicles, but they are on our payroll. This is out and other vehicles are given as a rental model to the riders. So they pay us on monthly basis.

How do you see the EV rental market developing?

See, Paul, the opportunity is huge in India itself. Huge opportunity is there. The earning that the rental model is, as I told you, that it is economical. The riders, they do not have to pay upfront cost. So the demand is huge. Every day we are getting, you know, we are not able to fulfill the requirement right now. So this is the current situation. Technology is also developing because there are few companies who have developed battery which the charging time is 15 minutes, 10 to 15 minutes from 0 to 100%, it will charge. So it is going to come in another 6 months or 1 year. 2 years. So once it comes, then the range anxiety and charging time, everything will go. So technologically also it is developing. And here, like, CAGR is 30% year on year on year, and it is going to be expected— it is expected that the same percentage of growth will be there.

Are there any age restrictions in India for riding Scooters, electric scooters, 18, 18 plus.

Normally we give because here we check Aadhaar card, so Aadhaar card we check the age, age should be 18 or 18 years or more, then we provide, uh, yeah, we can give like low speed vehicles. If, if the rider needs high speed vehicles, then he must have driving license. You must have driving license. We verify the driving license, we verify their Aadhaar card, and then we, we provide high-speed vehicles to them.

And, uh, do you think a lot of people are renting these scooters because it's helping to reduce their carbon footprint?

It is reducing carbon footprints, and, and I may— we are measuring also because, uh, until you like our fleet size, 350 vehicles we have, and monthly running is approximately 6.5 lakhs kilometers that we track like every month. There are few companies who, which have like, you know, committed to electrify their whole fleet, whatever vehicles they are using, two-wheelers or three-wheelers, everything they are going to convert to EV. And one obvious reason is this, because it is zero emission, non-polluting. And as you are aware, we are in Delhi NCR, so here the pollution level is high. That is one more reason. That is one more reason why any company who, which are responsible, who think that they are responsible for the environment, they call us, they call us, and then they tell that they are going to replace their petrol vehicles with EVs. And we help them, we provide them our vehicles.

And it provides people with a more economic way of traveling around, I guess, as well.

Economical, yes. Above, above all, whatever we are discussing, like green, I mean, this is the zero emission, non-polluting, these are the obvious benefit. But above all, it is economical. It is economical. How I can say, uh, in case of petrol vehicles, petrol bike, ₹3 per kilometer in India, the expense is ₹3, whereas in case of electric two-wheeler it goes to 15 to 30 paise per kilometer. So it is almost 90% less, 80 to 90% less expensive. This is one of the biggest reasons why people are adopting electric vehicles.

I think they're also a bit of a lifestyle choice as well, aren't they? I mean, just outside of work, people just like to ride around on them, I think.

Lifestyle, it is more comfortable once you use electric vehicle, then it will be difficult to switch to IC engine because there is no noise, no any vibration. So lifestyle choice is one thing, that is. But I, if I talk about commercial, if I talk about commercial, because we are into B2B, so we are into B2B here, it is purely, purely because of economical reason. Economical reason, that is one thing. And the market is huge. So market is huge.

And if we just talk about sort of the non-B2B side of things, then just EV scooters in general a little bit, I mean, they'll be also great for tourists, for people just—

if someone, if someone is coming to Delhi, if someone is coming to Delhi and see for one week, then they can, they can rent our vehicles and then they can roam around, they can go everywhere.

And are universities a market for you eventually?

We are going to enter into B2C. So B2C, our plan is to enter with from the university, like there are few knowledge parks in India. So we are going to launch from these locations.

Yeah.

And B2B has obviously market, but it has, you know, it will be saturation point that is going to come in few years. So before that, we will gradually— we will expand ourselves in B2C. And in B2C, we will expand from universities, colleges, IT hubs. B2C, all electric, all electric fleet we are going to launch for B2B, for mobility. Right now, B2— currently we are into B2B, and we— in B2C, we are going to launch all electric fleet, which we are going to deploy in metro stations. So B2C plans, uh, B2C, uh, we are going to launch all electric bike taxi, right? One is a B2C, uh, in colleges we will provide, and B2C will be like mobility, all electric two-wheeler taxi. So that app, that app, we have almost completed 80% of the development work. Once that is done, then you, you know that Uber Moto is there in India, uh, then Ola is there, Rapido is there. So they are into petrol vehicles, petrol bikes. We, we, we will be all electric two-wheeler. So this is how, and city-wise, city-wise, we will launch. We will start with Delhi. Gradually we will we will expand into another cities.

Do you need to wear a helmet in— you don't need to— do you need to wear a helmet in India with scooters?

Yes, yes, both riders, both will have to wear helmet. It is mandatory. Exclusive, like 70% of our vehicles are used for last mile deliveries.

Okay.

And, and the demand is going to increase up to 8 million vehicles by 2026.

For last mile delivery?

For last mile delivery, only 8 million. So the demand is huge, opportunity is huge. We are, we are working on automating the process. If we can like automate the process, then the scalability opportunity is huge. And that's why we are very much opportune, you know, optimistic that the future is going to be bright. So far we have, we have saved like almost 8.5 to 9 lakh of this carbon emission, 9 lakh kg of carbon. And every month we are like, we are calculating how much net saving carbon footprint we are. EV rental model is, uh, in India it is booming. I, I don't have much idea about how is there in UK. But here in Bangalore or in Hyderabad or in Delhi, people, you know, preferred like school-going or college-going kids, students, they prefer taking the vehicles, taking EVs on rent, and they are using it. They are using it a lot. Right.

Okay. Well, thank you so much for your time, Narendra, on this podcast. And helping us.

Thank you, thank you, Paul, for having me in your podcast.

You're welcome. And helping us to better understand the EV rental market, um, especially in India. Thank you very much.

Thank you, thank you, Paul.