Self-drive car rental company Zoomcar is looking to double its revenue and fleet size in financial year 2018, which will be driven by its marketplace model, Zoomcar Associate Program (ZAP), the company said in a statement.
The company had launched ZAP last year in April, to allow users as well as other individuals to buy one or more vehicles, which can be leased to Zoomcar on a revenue sharing model. ZAP allows users to buy vehicles on the company’s behalf and earn revenues by renting them when vehicle is not in use. This also allows Zoomcar to have less of self-owned vehicles and more of third-party vendors and dealers vehicles to its fleet.
In order to boost third-party owned vehicles under ZAP, the company offers bank loans through its lending partners or let users buy a car with cash. Zoomcar undertakes all of the operations once the car signs up on the ZAP platform. Zoomcar also takes 30% cut of revenue earned from each car each month under ZAP, but it also charges the owner fuel cost, servicing, maintaining and GPS tracking installation and working monthly.
As of now Zoomcar has 600 registered users with ZAP, and means 20% of its fleet is third-party vehicles. Overall, Zoomcar claims to have 20 lakh registered users across India with 3000 fleet.
Going forward the company aims to have 25,000 cars in 30 cities across India or which its ZAP (third-party fleet) would account for 85-90% fleet over the next 2-3 years.
The company currently offers services in 25 cities at present, and will expand to five more cities in next six months in the country.
Competition : Zoomcar competes with players like Revv, JustRide, Eco Rent a Car, Myles amongst others, which offers car rental or self-drive services in India.
International Expansion
Zoomcar has also charted out its international expansion plans to foray into 20-plus countries in next two-three years, starting with Asia and Africa, the company said in a statement. However, it is unclear if the company will work on ZAP model in the international markets as well.
Cab hailing on the cards?
Zoomcar also said that the company is in talks with various State governments to solve the regulatory issues around having a commercial licence for a private car. Looks like that Zoomcar is interested into cab hailing category, which is crowded with Ola and Uber in India. Apart from Ola and Uber, the cab-hailing space looks crowded with interest from the players such as Reliance Jio, Mahindra & Mahindra, amongst others.
Recent Zoomcar Highlights
Funding: In December last year, Zoomcar raised funding from Chinese VC firm Cyber Carrier CL, which was an additional amount to its series B funding in August last year, when it secured $24 million in the round led by Ford Smart Mobility LLC with participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital, Nokia Growth Partners and Empire Angels.
Hop: The company last month 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. Earlier, customers had to return to the city of origin to drop the car off.
Cadabra: 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).
