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EVs are a far more economical option compared to ICE vehicles and renting an EV is more convenient and cost-effective, feels Samarth Kholkar- CEO & Co-Founder of BLive, a startup that offers a wide range of EVs and related services through a digital platform.
In his response to our questionnaire, Kholkar said that India’s EV market has great potential. He also discussed EV subsidies, BLive’s financials, and business plans. Edited excerpts:
Tell us something about BLive
At BLive, we are on a mission to drive the adoption of sustainable mobility. My co-founder Sandeep and I, come from corporate backgrounds and always had the vision of creating something that could drive positive and meaningful impact and we chose electric vehicles as they are a perfect fit to addressing the current growing transport need of our country.
Three key barriers are restricting the mass adoption of EVs, which we refer to as the 3 ‘As’- Awareness, Accessibility and Affordability. When we started in 2018, we observed that people had limited Awareness of EVs, surrounded by a lot of myths and misconceptions. Our primary focus was to raise awareness and provide EV education. The second barrier is accessibility. We are addressing this by offering multiple brands on one platform and ensuring access to a reliable charging network and robust service support. Lastly, we offer affordability of EVs, focusing on flexible ownership models not just for personal users but also for commercial mobility.What’s your business model? How is it different from other market players?
We are India’s only “One Stop” platform for electric mobility. We have brought the entire EV ecosystem on one platform solving for the challenges faced by last-mile mobility providers.
Our platform offers a range of EVs across form factors, Flexi finance and leasing solutions, and lifecycle support for Ezy Rental operators making them efficient and profitable.
Our uniqueness is our growing network of EV Hubs that provide after-sales support to Ezy Rental operators. The BLive hubs also offer EVs for sale and rental, charging, EV retrofitting, and soon even resale of used EVs. No other company in the Indian EV industry offers the same.
We have an asset lite business model creating a win-win for the entire ecosystem – OEMs fleet operators and service providers. EV hubs and micro fleet operators get a choice of brands and multiple ownership models to offer to their end customers.
BLive has EV rentals, EV business, and many other verticals. How have things panned out so far?
Like any startup, we have gone through our evolution— addressing critical problems for EV users. Our platform has created verticals which address the lifecycle of the EV user starting from making it easy to own an EV to ensuring the ownership process is seamless. Our phygital approach adds on-ground capability instilling confidence in EV our users before embarking on their EV journey.
The traction we’ve gained is proof of the platform’s success. With a presence in over 25 cities across India, we have sold over 3000 EVs, deployed over 1000 EVs in fleets, and partnered with over 60 companies to offer choices and make EVs more affordable.
Do you have enough funding in view of the ever-growing competition? Tell me something about your finances.
We have built an asset-light model to ensure scalability and the tech platform can integrate the EV ecosystem players to cater to the customer demands. The EV category has garnered significant positive support from investors. Last year, startups across the board in the EV sector successfully raised funds, from EV manufacturers to EV finance companies, all securing support from marquee investors and continuing to do so. BLive is in a unique position to play a definitive role in the EV sector. We have raised 2 million USD so far as part of our pre-Series A fundraises.
As a first mover in the EV category, BLive is backed by investors such as Ankit Agarwal (Founder, Insurance Dekho), Apurva Chamaria (Google Ventures), Jitendra Nagpal (ex-CFO Pharmeasy, Zepto), and Angel Networks like Mumbai Angels & LetsVenture, along with early-stage funds like Trescon Global. We are now raising our Series A, and the funds will primarily be allocated to building technology and onboarding key roles within the organization.
You have partnered with Ather and now TVS. Any particular reason for choosing high-end E2Ws?
As a multi-brand platform, we offer choice of brands and product categories to our customers so that they can pick an EV which is best suited for them. That’s why not just Ather and TVS, we have also partnered with Ola, Revolt, Bounce and many other EV brands across the price bands and form factors. We also offer top brands of commercial 3-wheelers and loaders to our customers along with charging capability.
You have mentioned plans to go pan-India. Any timeline?
BLive already has an established presence in over 25 cities spread across 9 states. We are committed to extending our presence across India and aim to open 100 multi-brand EV hubs by the end of 2024. We are also focused on making inroads into Tier 2 and 3 cities of India where there’s enormous scope for growth for the EV sector. Similarly, with the growth of India’s digital footprint and the overall e-commerce industry, there has been a significant increase in demand for last-mile deliveries, not just in metros but also in smaller cities. With our Ezy Rental service offering, we will be able to bridge the gap between demand and supply of EVs to ensure that every delivery in every town is a green delivery.
How do you see the renting business model in the future vis-a-vis competitors?
BLive EZY Rental is committed to driving sustainable last-mile mobility for fleet operators. Our decentralized rental model introduces Flexible Ownership Models, making fleet ownership easily accessible. With a variety of EVs and services, thanks to our partnerships with multiple EV OEMs and service providers, we ensure the right vehicle and after-sales support for our users. The incorporation of Fleet Management Tech further enhances the experience, providing a connected platform for seamless fleet, delivery agent, payment, and analytics management. Whether you choose to buy, rent, or lease a fleet, our goal is to deploy 1 Million EVs for our fleet in the next 5 years.
Our asset lite and tech-based model allows us to expand to tier 2/3 towns in the future as well which are rapidly growing for E-commerce and food delivery operators. As a roadmap, we also plan to offer services which cater to end-of-life EVs through resale and battery recycling.
Why should people rent EVs?
Gig workers usually do not have the financial history to get loans for buying EVs. They also realize that EVs are a far more economical option compared to ICE vehicles. Hence, renting an EV is more convenient and cost-effective. BLive wants to ensure that EVs are accessible and affordable to everyone by offering customized solutions. The rental offerings include monthly rentals for both low-speed and high-speed vehicles. We have introduced premium vehicles like Ather and TVS iQube, recognizing that this audience also has aspirations, and premium vehicles should be accessible to them. To make it even more lucrative for them, we have introduced a unique rent-to-own model, meaning that after a certain tenure, the delivery executive can actually own the vehicle. This has received a positive response even in places like Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.
In the US, car rental giant Hertz dumped EVs in view of falling prices. Do you think EV prices will fall in India too?
EV rentals as a use case in India are very different from the US. Here, the primary user is the delivery executive who engages in deliveries with an e2W or e3W. The lowering of prices will actually help in higher adoption if it does happen. Currently, India has less than 5% of EVs in the annual sales of all vehicles. So, there is tremendous growth possible, which is needed. The opportunities are even more in Tier 2 and 3 cities where the penetration has been comparatively less until now.
Does the electric two-wheeler industry need subsidies to survive and grow?
The favorable policies and initiatives by the government will be instrumental in the growth of the entire EV sector. Including EVs in the Preferred Sector Lending (PSL) and reducing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on batteries from 18% to 5% will bring down the cost of EVs, thereby making them more affordable to own. I am also hopeful about policy measures that promote the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), including the extension of subsidies to make EVs more economical and offering incentives for conversion kits to transform internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles into electric vehicles.
What do you do with the old EVs?
BLive is an asset-light company, and we do not hold stock of EVs. As for old EVs, we recommend recycling and repurposing of batteries. We are already working on an AI-based platform to define the resale value of old EVs.
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