As people open up to the idea of sharing resources, the market for self-driving car rental is growing. People who don’t use their cars often aren’t willing to deal with the ownership and maintenance costs or the hassles. Moreover, an increasing number of travellers are looking to explore more when they step out during their vacations which means a significant fraction prefers self-drive rentals over other options.

Revv, Delhi-NCR based self-drive car rental company, has revealed expansion plans and is looking to more than double the fleet size over the next few months. Right now the company has a fleet size of 300 vehicles with presence across four major cities. They operate on a hybrid of ownership and marketplace model and their current fleet comprises largely of premium vehicles and close to a third of the vehicles in the fleet are provided via other self-driven vehicle providers.

Anupam Agarwal, Co-Founder & CEO of Revv said, “Our concept of 100% doorstep delivery service along with our maniacal focus on customer experience has already given us strong traction and repeat-user base. We will now use this launchpad to scale-up quickly and expand our services in several cities across India. The repeat usage has been a very encouraging trend for us, in addition to the sheer width of use cases for which customers are making bookings. It has also turned our thinking towards new, innovative products which are tailor-made for upcoming and large use cases”

The company is looking to have a fleet size of 700 by this festive season. With the increase in fleet size, the company will also expand its footprint and expand operations to 8-10 cities by the end of this year.

In this space, the prime competitors are Zoomcar and Myles. Along with that, Avis has also announced plans to invest more in the Indian market which would further catalyse the competition.

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Driverless cars are the new black. They are being looked at as the next big thing in ground transportation and Uber as the hero of this upcoming trend. The American ride hailing company recently started actually sending driverless vehicles to pick passengers for their Uber rides in Pittsburgh, of course not without their experts taking notes and ready to take control.

What was just a simpler method to call a cab is about to be the name that could (potentially) revolutionise the entire transportation and urban planning structure. Of course Uber isn’t the only one making the attempt here, far from that, but it certainly seems to be in an aggressive position.

The reasons are obvious. Right now, Uber is in a strong spot because of the network of full and part time drivers it has built over these years. This comes with trust it has built with these drivers over time, exactly why new driver partners keep signing up to drive with the platform. Another factor driving this is the other side, travellers. It is a chain in which both the sides are driving each other, just like many other examples you would pick from the access economy. If they are not aggressive and someone like Ford or Tesla has a fully autonomous car ready, it won’t be hard for them to scale up and eat Uber for breakfast. Replicating the technology once it is here won’t be tough and it would be easier for any brand to work on just the demand side rather than both demand and supply side.

However, to actually make a significant impact on the travel and transportation industry, brands won’t just have to work to get people acquainted to the idea of driverless cars. They will have to get people to ditch the idea of keeping a car. Uber has driven that change for some, but there still will be people who would not want to give up the ownership for the freedom that comes with it. Uber alone won’t be able to get people to give that up. To achieve that, car rental companies will have to play their part. Uber will offer the service but to get people there, car rental services will have to be the bridge.

Compared to the cab hailing services, these companies are making it even easier for people to not own a vehicle for short or long distance travel. Ownership of fleet will also be a big question when the ride hailing companies have developed road ready driverless cars. The likes of Uber don’t own any vehicles and the rental companies can actually take ownership of the fleet.

There are too many factors that will come into play and while we all are making guesses, how all this will shape up in the time to come is anyone’s guess.

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In its first investment in the country, the American automobile manufacturer Ford has invested USD 25 million in self-drive car rental company Zoomcar. This Series C round took the total equity funding of the company to USD 46.5 million. The other investors in the company are Sequoia Capital and Reliance Venture Management.

The latest investment has been led by Ford Smart Mobility, the automotive investment arm of Ford Motor Company. The self-drive car rental space has seen lot of activity recently and has seen wide adoption by professionals as well as leisure travellers. According to Business Standard report, Zoomcar is EBIDTA level profitable in several cities and is close to being country wide profitable in the next three months. Zoomcar has recently switched to a marketplace model which would allow the brand to quickly expand the scale by adding cars on a rev-share basis.

Zoomcar has a fleet of around 1600 cars with primary markets being cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. However the company is looking at Tier II and Tier III cities for expansion. The car-rental space isn’t without competition and the primary competitor for Zoomcar here is Myles. New players have also emerged in this space however most of them don’t have a significant scale yet.

Automobile manufacturers are increasingly showing their interest in services than being limited to just products. Many European car makers have either spun off rental or car sharing services or invested into such companies. Car ownership is going to see a decline as the access economy gains momentum which means the core businesses of the automobile giants is going to be affected. Earlier Ford Smart Mobility invested in a California startup that is generates 3D maps to help driverless cars.

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A space which was in the grey area only until a while back has now turned into a huge market opportunity for multiple players. For many of us, the freedom of having a personal mode of transportation takes a much higher priority than any other form due to the added flexibility over cabs. Which is why the self-drive rental cars are fast gaining popularity. More travellers are opting to drive themselves when at their destination instead of getting around with cab. Myles is one brand that is driving this global trend in the Indian market. We spoke with Sakshi Vij, Founder & CEO of Myles Cars to learn more about this industry. Here is an excerpt from the conversation:

How far has the self drive rental space come since you started? What were the key challenges with such a service in the early days?

The self-drive space has witnessed phenomenal growth in the last couple of years. We started with 14 cars and have now expanded to 21 cities with over 1000 cars. What started in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru has attracted interest in Tier-2 cities like Jaipur, Coimbature, Udaipur, Pune, Mysore and more. The positive response has encouraged us to introduce the concept to smaller cities and new markets.  In the next few years, we would bring in a fleet of 50000 cars in 50 cities spread across 5000 locations. The idea is to provide a Myles car every 400 meters in the cities.

In the times to come, we anticipate a few transport policy changes and support.

Currently, a self-drive renter has to stop at every inter-state tax terminal along with all drivers of other commercial vehicles to pay Inter-state taxes. Globally, the self-drive cars do not have to pay any inter-state taxes and are treated as private cars across the country.

What kind of users do you get mostly? Travellers? Locals looking for weekend drives? Enthusiasts trying out premium vehicles?

Myles is a product for the young urban professionals who hate to commit to assets they can have access to. Myles is most popular among Males/Females, in the age group of 24- 40, living in urban Indian cities. These are individuals who have ditched there personal cars for a more cost effective, flexible and convenient solution. The use cases vary from a housewife who takes our car for 2 hours every afternoon and does her daily shopping trip to a passionate traveler who wanted to drive from Delhi to Kanyakumari and therefore used a Myles car. We also cater to a large number of business travelers, NRI’s, Foreign Tourists amongst others.

It has been established that weekend gateways, short trips and vacations are increasingly getting popular. A young professional drives to work in his sedan, but may want a 4-wheel drive for adventure holidays. Myles gives you the liberty and flexibility to choose from the 38 car models depending the the occasion, mood and requirement.

With ownership costs constantly increasing, do you see people ditching their cars in favour of Myles or any other rental services or has this trend already started?

Myles is, unsettling the fundamental behavior of ownership, the shift has been observed where more and more customers prefer renting a car over buying one. The aim is to connect the user to a car. Offer commuters an alternative method of transportation which is cost-effective, saves time and flexible.

How do you see the competition in self-drive rental space? Are cab hailing companies also facing pressure from self-drive rentals or vice versa?

Myles is self-drive service unlike chauffeur driven cars. In fact we are complementary services. The need and budget of the consumer defines the service they choose. As Myles, we are creating and alternate ecosystem to car ownership. We therefore believe in collaborating with entities which currently support the car ownership ecosystem even though in a scattered fashion at present. This includes, Car Manufacturers, Car Service stations, Car cleaners, etc.

Any tips from your own journey with Myles that you would like to share for other entrepreneurs who are starting out?

I’ve been a strong believer of listening to the customers and analysing the data. The two are completely neutral, and ensure great learning for the future. Any organization that invests time and efforts in these will be able to stay strong in all market situations.

Myles is also our partner for the Hyderabad edition of Startup Knockdown. You can find more details about Myles at www.mylescars.com. Read about all the other partners for the event here.

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Self-drive car rental company Voler announced its foray into south with launch in Bengaluru. The car rental startup also plans to launch in other cities like Hyderabad and Chennai by the end of the year. According to the company, this expansion plan follows the company’s success in Delhi where its user base has jumped north of 15,000. They claim that almost half of the traffic is coming from their mobile apps.

The Kolkata based company plans to offer its service throughout Bengaluru along with the doorstep delivery it offers in Delhi. Voler, unlike other self-drive car rental companies offers cars without fuel included in the price. This allows for them to offer single flat pricing for the rental of cars instead of multiple options offered by others depending on the distance covered. The line-up includes cars from Tata Nano to Mercedes GLA and vehicles from all the categories in between.

“We are excited to flag off our operations in Bengaluru market, as we have witnessed a growing inclination towards car sharing and self-drive. More and more Bengaluru consumers are finding renting a car more economical than taking their own cars for travelling,” CEO and Founder Vikas Parasrampuria said.

Zoomcar, which is one of the bigger players in this segment, already operates in Bengaluru and has strong user base in the region. Other players in this segment are also operational in the city and Voler will have to go against them. Zoomcar is also looking to move to smaller cities in near future and with the pivot towards a marketplace model, the pace could be much higher than what we have seen previously. As these rental service continue to gain traction and expand their foot print, expect more users to give up car ownership in future.

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The self-drive car rental market is picking up momentum as people are getting used to the idea. Over the last few years, we have seen multiple rental services enter the Indian market and try to position themselves in different ways. In India, the rental services are largely used by travellers for weekend getaways or at their destinations for exploring local attractions.

With car ownership getting costlier and our roads getting packed with vehicles, we will see the self-drive rental services accelerate their growth in the coming years. Now the car rental company, JustRide has offered a new service called Ubiq. Under Ubiq, they are offering weekly rental plans for urban commuters. Prices start at INR 4,000 per week (5 days) which includes fuel for 500 kms of driving.

According to the company, they are trying to give carpooling at corporate level a boost and discourage people from buying cars. A large fraction of the cars sit around unused for most part of their life and this is a move to reduce that. On the other hand, the demand for self-drive rental cars is lower on weekdays as compared to weekends and the lower prices on Ubiq would ensure the available cars are utilised to their maximum.

We saw Zoomcar introduce something similar in September last year with multiple plans to cater to office goers. JustRide offers better prices per kilometre to the travellers while Zoomcar has a stronger presence across regions. The idea is attractive and prices are very well justified but when it comes to office commute, these services not only compete against each other but also against the cab hailing services like Uber and Ola.

Apart from Ubiq, JustRide also offers an interesting service that allows drivers who can’t afford a car to rent cars and use them as cabs with Ola or Uber. JustRide was founded by IIT Mumbai and NIT Allahabad alumni and raised USD 2 million in pre-series A funding last year. You can find more details about JustRide and the Ubiq service on JustRide.in.

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We have recently seen a rise in number of self-drive car rental services in India. Zoomcar, Myles, MiCar and recently introduced Voler offer wide range of cars across segments for rental trips. They are an excellent choice for people who don’t need a car everyday but need one for specific occasion such as when travelling with friends. Then there is a category of enthusiasts who rent premium cars for weekend fun and sheer experience.

Zoomcar’s recent emailer talks about their special plans for daily office commuters. To be honest we never saw this coming. We always thought Zoomcar was for those weekend outdoor trips and business executives who go to a different city. There are many countries where people are not buying cars and relying heavily on similar services but does it really make sense in India at this point? A debate broke out in our office immediately with opinions pouring in.

What is on table?

Zoomcar is offering cars starting at INR 2,400 for a week of 4 days (or INR 3,000 for 5 days). For that you get a Ford Figo for 4 days and 120 free kms. That gives you 30 kms for a day or 15 for one side travel to your work which is fair enough. For those who travel more for work, the same car is available with twice the free distance for INR 3,360. The car can be picked at 8 PM on Sunday and dropped off at the same time on Thursday.

The problem?

While the idea is attractive and prices justified, we couldn’t help but compare it to alternatives like taking a cab. The cab aggregators like Uber and Ola offer very low prices per kilometre and are readily available in metro cities where Zoomcar operates. While there are many who are not a fan of being driven around, it is probably the best idea on a weekday in rush hour traffic. Office hours in morning and evening are the only times when you wouldn’t want to be behind the steering wheel.

Of course the next thing we jumped at was the price. For an Uber ride of approx 14-15 kms, you will pay around INR 180 assuming the ride takes close to 40 minutes. The cars are comparable to Ford Figo and you can just sit back without having to struggle with the annoying traffic. Even after this, it turns out to be cheaper than Zoom Commute which is approximately INR 300 for the same one way ride.

Another factor is liability. While Zoomcar cuts down on many liabilities of owning a car, you are still responsible to some extent for safekeeping of the car. You will have to make sure you have a parking space both at work and your home, and we know about the parking mess in Tier1 cities of India.

There are many common routes which translate to longer distances than the upper limit of Zoom Commute. For instance, if you commute on the Delhi-Gurgaon/Delhi-Noida route, it is a given that you will exceed that daily limit and end up paying more per kilometre. It is appropriate for short distances, but there they are competing in a price war against on-demand taxi booking services.

TravHQ take

While Zoomcar is trying to promote their services among daily office goers, we do think they should adhere to the segment of travellers. Zoomcar is an excellent service and we will continue to look towards them whenever we need a big car for our weekend trips. However, the Zoom Commute just doesn’t justify itself very well. It would have made sense if there was a serious price advantage but as long as cab services are operating at such low costs to fight off the competition, it will be a tough battle for the likes of Zoomcar.

We appreciate that Zoomcar is putting in efforts to get more people to try such services and reduce the number of underutilised cars. You can find the cars and plans on their website here. Afterall it isn’t a bad idea to ditch your everyday drive for a week and go to work in a mighty SUV.

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Self drive car rental company ZoomCar has been attracting a lot of attention during recent times with expansion to new cities, radio ads, big fleet of cars and attractive consumer pricing. They have also been making rapids on digital platforms.

The latest in this series is a tip-off from their marketing team about a YouTube music video. The video conveys the whole idea of Zoomcar in a nice musical theme. The 3minute 25second video rides on the ‘freedom to drive on your own’ theme and conveys the story of a group of friends who use Zoomcar for their next trip. The background score certainly has a nice soothing appeal to it and goes well with the overall theme of the video.

The explosive growth of YouTube as a video consumption platform makes it an absolutely critical choice in any travel related brand’s marketing strategy. We feel that this video is a great attempt by Zoomcar to inspire people to go out and travel! Perhaps, the duration of the video could have been a little shorter as the pace of it doesn’t change in the second-half.

Will the music of the video and the soulful voice behind it create a viral pull? We will soon come to know about that in the coming days!

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