Zoom & Mahindra to Roll Out Electric Cars on Self Drive Rental Model

Self-drive car rental service Zoomcar is gearing up for a large-scale roll out of electric vehicles on its platform, which will be owned and offered on rent by its associates, in an effort to expand its user base. As part of this initiative, the company on Monday tied up with Mahindra Electric.

Zoomcar believes that over 80% of its fleet will be under ZAP, Zoomcar’s fractional car ownership programme by the end of 2017.“Currently, Zoomcar owns and operates over 3,000 cars that we rent out to customers. Henceforth, the company will not maintain its own fleet but encourage individuals to buy and rent out cars on its platform,” Greg Moran, founder and CEO of Zoomcar told the media.

Till date, the company has raised over $45 million funds. Greg said, “The ZAP programme allows individuals to purchase the e2oPlus on Zoomcar’s self-drive platform, list the vehicle on a dynamic basis whenever idle, get bookings from Zoomcar’s customer base and earn cash to help offset the monthly ownership costs (by sharing in the profit on a daily, weekly and monthly basis).”

Mahindra Electric CEO Mahesh Babu said, “Currently, the cost of acquisition of an electric car is high and makes retail customers think twice before going ahead. With this partnership, we are addressing that issue.”