Narendra Jha Founder & CEO at EVA2Z Discusses EV Scooter Rentals

Narendra

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

Paul

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 EVA2Z, Noida, India, and we're gonna be discussing EV Scooter Rentals.

Paul

Welcome, Narendra.

Narendra

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

Paul

If you could tell us a little bit about EVA2z first, please.

Narendra

Yes, sir, Paul. We started our this venture, in September 2022. So it has been one year since we started. And, currently, we are, 350 electric vehicles to rent, which we are giving it to giving to the, companies, b2b companies, like Zomato, Rapido, Uber, Uber, linkit, ztwo. These are these are few companies in India, which are into last mile delivery.

For we, the work that EV2Z is doing is, we are providing all electric ton monthly rental basis to these companies. And, the rental we take, like, every fifteen 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  is first, it is zero emission. No air pollution. No  noice pollution is there. And above all, it is economical if we compare it with the ICE and vehicles.

.So this is, this is the, this is the big advantage of, using electric vehicles as, last mile delivery and giving it to the riders on rental model.

Paul

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

Narendra

Currently, we have 350 vehicles.

Paul

And how many cities are you in?

Narendra

Currently, we are presenting five cities. Our target is to reach, twenty thousand vehicles by thirty first of March 2024.

Paul

Wow. Okay. That's gonna be rapid growth then. And, what types of vehicles are you rental renting out?

Narendra

There are two types of vehicles in two units that we are renting. One is, lower speed. So, lower speed those whose speed is up to twenty five kilometer per hour.

The benefit of using low speed vehicles is that it does not require driving license. So you you only have to, you know, wear helmet on the that's it. So so those riders to who who are not having their driver access. They are also eligible to use our low speed electric vehicles. So this is one model.

Another model is highest speed vehicles. So highest speed vehicles, the speed is up to sixty kilometer per hour.

But it needs, driving license, helmet, RTO. All the registration needs to be done. So these two vehicles in electric to in two wheelers we are using right now.

Paul

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

Narendra

Correct. Low speed and high speed scooters.

Paul

I know the laws vary from one country to the next, don't they with scooters? Yes. So I I believe that, recently in France or in Paris, at least they banned them.

Narendra

Yeah. Yeah. Low speed. Actually, because of low speed's few accidents, there are few challenges that, that is there with low speed because, most of the lowest speed providers are not that much skilled, and they do, you know, the accident or not.

So, gradually, we are shifting to high speed because we also know it is recently trans and in few other countries, it has been banned. And, I think in another one year, lower speed will be discontinued in India as well.

Paul

You're only renting to businesses. Is that right?

Narendra

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 thirty-five thousand vehicles from these countries. So, So, this is good thing because, in this case, like, we provide hundred vehicles to one company and then payment gets I mean, things are easier. 

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 six months.

Paul

Okay. And, how long do they rent them for generally?

Narendra

They rent it for, sometimes fifteen days There are a few, riders who have taken vehicles from us, eight months back, seven months back, and they they come to us only for servicing or when they're, there are any technical issues. So on an average, the riders, riders, they take vehicles from us for, minimum one month.

Paul

Are they, quick to charge. Do they charge it off the home?

Narendra

The vehicles that we have, they are, in battery swap. So they have, once once the vehicle gets discharged, like ten percent of the charges remaining, then they come to our swapping network. We have our swapping network in these, cities. And they it takes, hardly fifteen minutes.

They put the discharged battery in the surface station, and then they take, fully charged batteries, and, it's booty, and then they are good to go for another fifteen forty five kilometers.

Paul

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

Narendra

Single battery, they can go up to sixty sixty kilometers sixty five to sixty kilometers.

Paul

Are you able to recharge your batteries with green? Energy?

Narendra

We do reach us, from the electricity that we'll get and the source of electricity It is, in here, in India, it is, almost fifty to sixty percent. It is, green energy, and, forty percent, it is thermal. So I cannot tell you one hundred percent every time the charge we do is green.

Paul

What problems do you typically find with these scooters?

Narendra

The scooters that we are using, we started and we start it, we we we took the scooters that are being used for, household purpose. So they are not sturdy and that, enough for, to be used for commercial users because of which wear and tear is more, it needs more maintenance than it should.

Paul

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

Narendra

No. 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. The there has to be minimum plastic parts. This, it it should be a steel frame so that it can run like one fifty kilometers a day or one twenty kilometers a day, which minimum wear and tear. This is what our requirement is. It should not look great because look great that is secondary for us. For the for us, it should it should go hundred plus kilometer in single cells, and the vehicle should be sturdy enough so that it has, you know, less, wear and tear.

Paul

Right. Okay. What are the maintenance do these scooters require?

Narendra

It has a motor, it has a break. So sometimes the break levers go up, break is there. Then plastic parts, it it breaks down in terms of air because here, temperature is so high. Sometimes it is forty two degrees centigrade.

Right. Because of that, if there is a 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, when we have to we have to bring those vehicles to our service center, and then we have to submit those vehicles. So we, we have requested the OEMs to put the battery a bit higher so that when there is rain, then we should not face issues that we are facing right now.

Paul

And, are there any government incentives or support for you?

Narendra

Yes. Government incentive is there. GST. GST is only five percent. Whereas in other vehicles, it is, minimum eighteen percent and, proved like twenty eight percent.

Whereas in case of electric vehicles, it is five percent, and also there is subsidy called FAME subsidy, like fast adoption of, mobility. So So fame subsidy, we get per kilowatt battery. We get, few thousand rupees. Earlier, it was fifteen thousand per kilowatt.

Now they have reduced it. But it's still, incentive is there. Same three subsidiary, we call it. So that subsidy, we get, per vehicle when we purchase.

So it is approximately in the end of this ten thousand per vehicle.

Paul

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

Narendra

We have one system. Sometimes the battery, run out, then there is only moving vehicles. It carries up to eighteen batteries. So the riders, yeah, the riders, they they will have to send us their location. And, within, like, two 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.

Paul

So you don't know where they all are at any one time.

Narendra

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

Paul

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

Narendra

This is for our, because the vehicles are our asset. So although we give, we give it to the riders and, they are, earning. It is economical for them. So they are getting their benefit. But in case of, sometime, sometimes it happens that the riders are unreachable.

Yes. We we are not able to contact them because of any kind of issues. 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 will bring it back to our

Paul

And is that do you have a lot of competition in this market?

Narendra

Two, three players are there. Two, three players are there. So they are they are into similar business. And, demand is, I told you that hardly, po percent demand has been fulfilled. So competitors are there, but we are not afraid of, the competitors because we we are mainly focusing on, making our service better, so that I mean, yeah, competition, to be close at the end, but their demand is used, so there's nothing to, you know, it is a good thing to have competitive right now.

Paul

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

Narendra

So so fifteen full time who are, managing the operations. And, around sixty five, they are riders. They are using our vehicles, but they are on our payroll. Welcome. This is out. And and and other vehicles are given as a rental model to buy items. So they pay us on monthly basis. 

Paul

How do you see the EV rental market developing?

Narendra

I see Paul, the opportunity is used in India itself, use opportunities 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 the demand is used every day. We are getting zero 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 that way, which, the charging time is, fifteen minutes. Ten to fifteen minutes. From zero to hundred percent, it will charge. So it is going to come in another six months or one year two years. So once it comes, then the range anxiety and charging time, everything will go.

So, technologically, also, it is developing. And, here, like, CSR is, thirty percent year on year on year, and it is going to be expected It is expected that the same percentage of both will be there two zero three zero.

Paul

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

Narendra

Eighteen eighteen plus.cNormally, we give because here, we check on her card. So on our card, we check there is there should be eighteen or eighteen years or more. Then we provide, 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 other card, and then we we provide And, 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 I may we are measuring also because, until you like, our fleet size, three fifty vehicles we have. And monthly, running is approximately six point five lakhs millimeter that we track like every month.

There are a few companies So which have, like, you know, committed to electrifying their whole fleet, whatever vehicles they are using, two villas or three villas. Everything they are going to convert to EV. And, one obvious reason is this, because it is zero non policy, zero emission non polluting, And as you are aware, we are in Delhi and see as to where the pollution level is high. That is one more reason. That is one more reason I mean, something 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 all, whatever we are discussing, like, not green. I mean, this is, zero point zero emission non politics.

These are the obvious benefit, but above all, it is economical. It is economical how I can say, in case of petrol vehicles, petrol bike, three rupees per kilometer in India. The expense is three three rupees. Whereas, in case of electric, two wheeler. It goes to fifteen to thirty passing per kilometer per kilometer. 

So it is almost, ninety percent less. It's eighty to ninety percent, less expensive.Right. This is one of the biggest reasons why people are adapting electric vehicles.

Paul

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

Narendra

It is more comfortable. Once you use electric vehicle, then it will be difficult to you switch to, IC engine because there is no noise. No any vibration.

So life is silent. So I is, one thing that is, but I if I talk about commercial, if I talk about commercial, because we are into b 2b. So we are into b 2b here. It is purely, purely because of economical reason, economical reason that is one thing. And, the market is huge. So market is huge.

Paul

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 they'll be also great for, tourists for people just

Narendra

But if if someone if someone coming to Delhi. If someone is coming to Delhi and Sierra, for one week, then they can they can rent our vehicles and then they can roam around

Paul

And are universities a market for you eventually?

Narendra

We are, going to enter into, b2c So b 2c, our plan is to enter with from the university. Your knowledge parks in India. So we are going to launch from Metr. And, b2c has obviously market, but it has, you know, it will be the saturation point that is going to come in few of. So before that, we will, gradually, we will extend 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 B2C for, mobility.

Right now, B two, currently, we are into B2B on in B2C, we are going to launch, all electric fleet, which we are going to deploy in metro stations.

So b2c plans, b 2c, we are going to launch all electric bike taxi. Right? One is, b2c, in colleges we will provide, and b2c will be like mobility on electric to wheeler, taxi. So that app, that app, we have almost completed eighty percent of the development work. Once that is done, then, you know, you know that, Uber motor is there in India.

Then, hola is there. Repido is there. So they are into petrol vehicles, petrol bikes. We we we will be all electric This is how and and city wise city wise will evolve.

So we'll start with Delhi. Gradually, we will, we will, expand into another cities.

Paul

Do you need to wear a helmet in India? 

Narendra

Yes. It's both riders. Both will have to wear helmet. It is mandatory. Exclusive, like, seventy percent of our our vehicles are used for last mile deliveries.

Okay. Alright. And and the demand is going to increase up to eight million vehicles by two thousand twenty six. For last mile delivery. For last mile delivery, only eight million. For the demand is used. Opportunity is huge.

We are we are working on automating the process if we can, like, automate the process, then the scalability opportunity is used. And that's why we are very much, you know, optimist that the future is going to be right. So far, we have we have saved, like, almost, eight point five to nine of this carbon emission, nine nine, like, easy, easy of carbon. And every month, we are, like, we are calculating how much net saving carbon footprint here.

Easy rental model is, 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's, 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.

Paul

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

Thank you for having me in your podcast.