“MoEVing” India Towards Electrification

While the passenger car segment is perhaps the most visible, it is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to electrification.

Verticals such as logistics, construction, and defence all have a significant impact when it comes to fuel consumption and creating large carbon footprints.

Early in its journey, Indian start-up MoEVing identified that the logistics sector needed some help to decarbonise.

Speaking to Auto Futures, Vikash Mishra, MoEVing’s CEO and co-founder said:

“When COVID hit us in 2019, it changed the whole passenger segment. As passenger mobility came to a halt, people started working from home, there was a sudden surge in the e-commerce market. The number of online orders increased three times than before. We observed the rising demand for vehicles used in the delivery segment and saw an opportunity to replace the demand for ICE vehicles with Electric vehicles. From there, the concept of MoEVing was born.

“We are still in the early stages of fundraising from various investors throughout the world. Our current seed financing round of $5 million is a mix of equity and loan capital, and it is in addition to the $5 million disclosed in December 2021. BeyondTeq, a UAE-based venture capital business, GCC family offices, Strides One, TradeCred, N+1 Capital, Nitish Mittersain, and others were among the recent round investors.”

Data-First Driving

For now, MoEVing is focusing on industries that rely on timely and efficient middle and last-mile deliveries. Think e-commerce, FMCG, groceries, logistics and Direct To Consumer (D2C) companies. The company is developing a driver-centric platform that offers full-stack technology solutions such as delivery, charging, finance, and analytics — making EV adoption a simple process.

With data at the heart of its approach, MoEVing links vehicles to its technology platform in real-time by using telematics devices, allowing the company to acquire insight into battery behaviour, vehicle behaviour, and driver behaviour, resulting in additional income streams.

(L to R) Mragank Jain (founder & CSO Moeving), Dr. Amitabh Saran (founder, Altigreen), Rajender Kataria (Pprincipal Secretary To The Government Transport, Karnataka), Vikash (founder & CEO, Moeving) Arun Vinay

MoEVing’s platform has been curated to enable cheap customer acquisition cost while ensuring low customer churn, and remaining asset-light,  but scalable with worldwide applicability. The platform has been successful and the company has recently expanded its network to Tier-II cities such as Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Lucknow, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, and Coimbatore, and is further expecting to expand to four more cities in the coming months.

“We understand the huge demand in the last-mile delivery segment. It asks for attention and is cost-competitive. We try to ensure that the EV product available in the market is appropriate for EV adoption,” said Mehra.

“The challenge is to find the right product among the various OEMs. There are about 40-50 OEMs in the market and, every day, new OEMs are added to the list. The question is how to filter among these OEMs and who can provide a functional and efficient product that matches our service and provide the long-term commitment to providing vehicle supply.”

“To find the right product, we conduct thorough testing at our end. We test the vehicles under multiple conditions, including climatic conditions in different cities, different speeds and range, charging capacity, charging time, driver comfort and loading capacity. We confirm the vehicle only if it stands out in each condition.

“Another challenge we face is that most OEMs are unable to match our speed. So, we try to give our orders in advance so the OEMs can plan and ensure a timely supply of vehicles. We are now entering to fulfil the demands of big retail and FMCG companies where the 4W segment can help us. It is difficult to find a good supplier, good form factor, product, and after-sales network from the same OEM. We have signed an MOU with Tata Motors on the 4W segment, and we are hoping to solve this challenge soon,” he added.

For Mehra, technology is indispensable when it comes to making the energy transition more efficient. But, while technology is important, the platforms that the transition relies on the need to make everyone’s lives easier and more convenient.

The logistics ecosystem had some clear challenges that were hampering EV adoption. There wasn’t much clarity on which EVs were suitable for commercial use cases, what kind of charging infrastructure was needed, and how to retrain and reskill drivers. Perhaps the most fundamental challenge was EV financing.

“We understand the landscape of energy mobility and the solutions that need to solve the electrification problem in the country. We, as a solution provider will become a one-stop platform for all the solutions required to make 100% EV adoption happen. Our aim is to solve the various puzzle pieces of EV adoption and help the different strata in the EV industry with our solutions,” explained Mehra.

MoEVing’s technology platform helps drivers to select the right product, understand the warranty, terms, and conditions of the vehicle, get access to maintenance, insurance, and financing, access charging infrastructure from MoEVing and its partners, and gather information about vehicle behaviour, battery behaviour, and driver behaviour through telematics devices attached to the vehicle.

MoEVing is actively working with OEMs to get their vehicles on the road through its customers. The company’s fleet has since grown to more than 1,000 vehicles. The EVs have been received well and the demand for them is only growing. Noiseless and pollution-free driving have helped improve the driving experience. What’s more, as drivers are spending less on fuel, MoEVing has helped turn them into driver-cum-owners.

Lack of Charging Infrastructure

Charging infrastructure, or rather the lack of it, is a huge roadblock for EV adoption. But MoEVing has tackled this challenge head-on with its own initiative. “We feel that different charging methods are necessary for different vehicles and for different client use cases. As a result, we must provide a solution that addresses all use cases for e-commerce and FMCG enterprises. That is why it is essential to have everything under one roof. By doing so, we can accommodate a wide range of use cases and form factors, as well as any technology,” said Mehra.

“We opened India’s first futuristic electric vehicle charging station in Yeshwanthpur, Bengaluru, in March. It’s a one-stop shop for everything EV, including high-volume EV charging points, fast and slow charging, EV battery swapping stations, EV repair stations, and an EV experience and learning centre all under one roof. We need to create 500 charging stations like this over the next three to five years to support a fleet of 100,000 vehicles.”

Moving forward, MoEVing wants to enter the four-wheeler industry and increase its vehicle fleet to 10,000 EVs by 2023 but wants nothing to do with the passenger segment at this stage. Speaking about the company’s plans, Mehra said: “MoEVing’s vision is to enable the EV ecosystem, we have started with the last-mile logistics segment. We started with 2W and 3W and planned to enter the 4W segment to fulfil the last mile but also the first-mile and middle-mile logistics segments.”

“We presently run over 1000 EVs in 16 cities across 11 Indian states. Our fleet now consists largely of two and three-wheelers. We plan to expand our fleet to 10,000 EVs and add four-wheelers. Geographically, we intend to expand to over 30 cities and have a footprint throughout India. We will also focus on constructing over 100 charging stations in these cities by 2023,” he concluded.