Self-drive car rental company Zoomcar has launched a one-way intercity service called Hop where a customer can pick up a car from a location from one city and drop it off to another city at a Zoomcar location. Zoomcar’s Hop service will be available across 24 cities including intra-state and eventually inter-state routes as well.
Earlier, customers had to return to the city of origin to drop the car off and Zoomcar says that this will add flexibility and options for people’s travel plan.
The 24 city routes are Bangalore – Mysore, Bangalore – Mangalore, Mangalore – Mysore, Bombay – Pune, Ahmedabad – Surat, Kolkata – Siliguri, Chennai – Coimbatore, Vijayawada – Vizag. CEO Greg Moran says that the company is looking to expand the service to 30 routes this quarter.
Cars can be booked on the app or website where the user will have to enter their drop off city and location. Based on the pickup and drop off location, the minimum duration is calculated to cover the distance (this includes the price of fuel). The price of the trip will be decided by the hours required to cover the distance between starting point to the destination.
Funding
Zoomcar raised an undisclosed funding from Chinese VC firm Cyber Carrier CL. This is an additional amount to the earlier announced series B funding in August when the company secured $24 million. The round was led by Ford Smart Mobility LLC with participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital, Nokia Growth Partners and Empire Angels.
Car monitoring
In January, Zoomcar launched Cadabra, a solution which tracks data about the car, in real-time: it plugs into the car’s OBD-II port, and provides information such as distance traveled, fuel used, clutch performance, etc, tracking information like fuel levels, clutch position, harsh braking, inconsistent acceleration, seat belt usage, and engine health (among others).
