One of the pioneers of India's car rental industry, Carzonrent currently has a fleet size of 5000 vehicles across the country, operating in 79 cities. Electric Vehicles in the form of taxis can help reduce India's carbon footprint drastically. Business Today TV spoke to Rajiv K Vij, founder of Plug Mobility, a Carzonrent initiative into the fast-emerging Electric Vehicle Mobility as a Service sector.
As per Vij, Plug Mobility will induct a fleet of over 2500 EV cars under the Plug initiative within the next 12 months in all major cities across India to transition our existing customer contracts to EV fleet services, he further added that as a leading player in the commercial car industry ,it is our responsibility to help the industry transition to clean mobility options.
Vij further adds that post-pandemic, business travel has started to grow significantly resulting in the car rental segment witnessing growth and the segment will transition to EV fleets and continue to grow over the next many years at a healthy rate of 12-15 per cent. The company has partnered with Fortum, one of the largest charging infrastructure companies in the world, to set up 3200 charge points across the country.
On recent spate of EV fire incidents, Vij said that EV players must provide detailed Do’s and Don’ts to all buyers of electric vehicles to ensure that there is no mishandling and incidents of this nature in future.
Edited excerpts of the conversation
BT: Why did Carzonrent venture into E Mobility when the rental model is already a success. Are there any market feedback that you relied upon?
RV: Carzonrent team believes that the future of Mobility is electric and while our business has been doing well over the years, we believe that we have an opportunity to lead the transition of the mobility industry to EV fleets over the next few years. The TCO for EV is positive which will result in improved margins for driver partners as also for Carzonrent while also offering Co2 emission/ carbon savings and achievement of ESG targets for our customers besides cost savings on extra KM usage beyond the basic package prices. We also believe that as a leading player in the commercial car industry, it is our responsibility to help the industry transition to clean mobility options.
BT: What's the outlook on the car rental segment?
RV: Post-pandemic, the business travel has started to grow significantly resulting in the car rental segment witnessing growth. We also believe that the segment will transition to EV fleets and continue to grow over the next many years at a healthy rate of 12-15 per cent.
BT: What is the current side of the fleet and from which sectors you're seeing maximum demand?
RV: Carzonrent operates a fleet of over 5000 cars nationally operating in 79 cities and towns of business potential, servicing business travel, employee/ crew movement, aviation/ hospitality sectors for limo requirements for their guests, government and PSU requirement of fleets for their official movement, airport taxi services, etc. We foresee significant demand growth in each of these segments due to growing economic activity and investments taking place in infrastructure, aviation, airports, hotels, roads etc. India is at the cusp of becoming a major global economy and mobility is at the heart of this growth.
BT: What are your expansion plans at Plug Mobility and how do you plan to fund them?
RV: Carzonrent has been focusing on building and testing its proprietary technology tools for EV fleet operation and has conducted thousands of pilots servicing customers with EV’s in different cities. We have also been building partnerships with OEM’s, financial institutions/banks/ leasing companies, charge point operators and other players to create an eco-system to support our driver/vendor partners to run an efficient and profitable EV fleet with Plug. We will induct a fleet of over 2500 EV cars under the Plug initiative within the next 12 months in all major cities across India to transition our existing customer contracts to EV fleet services. We see an opportunity for market consolidation through our M-a-a-S model and will fund our growth plans through fresh equity infusion.
BT: There has been this argument that using thermal energy to charge EV's is not doing good to the environment or carbon emissions. What's your take on this?
RV: As a mobility company, we are focused on achieving Zero Tail Pipe Emissions through transition to EV fleets. As far as the source of energy is concerned, we have no doubt that solar and other non-fossil sources of energy which are attracting large investments, will become the main source of energy for charging EV’s soon.
BT: Regarding EV fire incidents, there have been indications that poor quality of cells is being used? What's your message to the EV players?
RV: Fire accidents have taken place due to a variety of reasons, and while some of them may be due to BMS, battery composition, lack of testing, inadequate cooling mechanisms, etc., some others may be related to electricity connection and mishandling of the battery by user at the time of charging. These incidents are not good for the EV industry and so all players must take all precautions and make sure that there are no such incidents going forward which can be attributed to battery composition, BMS, battery cooling mechanism, testing etc. The government is also taking all the necessary steps in this direction. In addition, the players must provide detailed Do’s and Don’ts to all buyers of EV vehicles to ensure that there is no mishandling and incidents of this nature in future.
BT: How are you overcoming the challenge of establishing an EV ecosystem like charging stations?
RV: We have partnered with Fortum, one of the largest charging infrastructure companies in the world to set up 3200 charge points for us to support our fleet of cars in 79 cities located in our hubs, parking sites, airports, hotels, IT parks/ business parks, inter-city routes, etc. In addition, we have forged partnerships with OEM’s, banks/ leasing companies/ fintech companies, workshop aggregators, pre-owned car sale players, etc. to provide a unique ecosystem to our driver partners for efficient operations, management and maintenance of the EV fleet.
8. Is there a plan for an IPO for Carzonrent or Plug Mobility?
RV: Plug is an initiative by Carzonrent and so all financial strategies to fund the business, create value and provide an exit to our investors, are continuously evaluated by our Board.
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