Planning to expand its network beyond the country’s border, ride-hailing platform owning EV fleet, BluSmart has decided to test international waters.
“BluSmart wants to pilot its operations in the Middle East and has asked drivers to keep their passports and other documents on hand as it plans to run a feasibility test of international markets,” a source close to the company said. “If the company goes ahead with its plans, it will only be in 2024.” The choice to enter the market is based on the outcomes of the pilot. “The company had yet to decide on its supplier as well as other finer details about the venture,” the person added.
The developments at BluSmart come at a time when its domestic business is already facing competition from newer players such as Evera, which has raised around Rs 60 crore from Germany’s IEG Investment Banking Group and Singapore’s Westova Global, among others, to expand its EV fleet in the country to around 2,000 by the end of the current calendar year, up from around 200 currently.
Both Evera and BluSmart have stated that they prefer longer excursions, such as to airports, because the economies work out better than intra-city travel.
Both Evera and BluSmart have expressed their inclination towards longer trips, like to airports, as the economies work out better as opposed to intra-city rides.
Even established and larger competitors, such as Ola and Uber, are establishing a footprint in the EV ride-hailing industry, where BluSmart is popular. After running a similar test in Nagpur in 2018, Ola said in January that it was in the final stages of rolling out another pilot programme in which it will deploy 10,000 premium electric cars (EVs) for consumers on its cab-booking platform.
BluSmart began operations in the Delhi NCR belt about 3-4 years ago and expanded into some Bengaluru areas in September of last year. Punit Goyal, the company’s co-founder, previously told FE that the company would grow into cities such as Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata in the coming quarters because India was a large enough market to solve for.
BluSmart also acquired regulatory clearance last month to begin operations from the Bengaluru airport, expanding its footprint in the city.
Between the two locations, the Gurugram-based company presently operates roughly 5,000 EVs, exceeding its end-of-FY23 goal. BluSmart intends to add 40,000-50,000 EVs over the next 12-18 months, lowering running costs from roughly 1.4 per km to less than Rs 1 per kilometer, which will be around 8-9X cheaper than a gas car on average. This would likely leave the company with stronger margins, as it wants to become profitable as early as the end of the current fiscal year, owing to growing demand and charging network monetization plans, as previously reported. BluSmart owns all of the cabs it operates and employs drivers.
