EV start-ups feel the spark of recovery, kick-start post-pandemic biz plans
Though electric vehicles are
clearly the flavour of these climate-change challenged times, Covid-19 infected
sales, just as it did with conventional automobiles. This pandemic-induced
slowdown, when business growth was virtually zero, presented challenges not
just for e-vehicle makers but also the many start-ups that had
developed within the ecosystem to provide a range of services — from funding
and research facilities to taxi fleet operations and battery-charging services.
How are they doing with the recovery?
“The past 12 months have posed the toughest challenges for the
entire urban mobility sector. It challenged the viability and health of urban
mobility across the sector irrespective of the segment, whether B2C or the
scooter segment or ride-sharing. In spite of that, all of us have risen both
individually and collectively,” said Sanjay Krishnan, founder of Lithium Urban
Technologies.
His company provides EV fleet management service. The
Bengaluru-based company, which was set up in 2015, saw absolutely no business
during the lockdown months of April and May but a small uptick with the gradual
unlocking, launched new products in the market. The company also looked beyond
city transport and went into new cities and services such as inter-city and
airport services. The company has clocked 150 million ekms with 10 million ekms
during the crucial Covid-19 period.
Though Krishnan said his company was well-capitalised and could
weather the challenge, “at one stage, volumes for an extended period of time
were almost zero but you had costs and bills”. This called for structural
changes, he said. “We continued to invest, create and innovate during the
period,” he added.
There’s some distance to comfort yet, however. Even today,
Krishnan said, demand is of the “start-stop-start-stop” variety as different
places open up but then governments clamp down. “But overall, the path is
upwards. In the next six months, demand should be back somewhat to pre-Covid
levels. The first quarter of the next calendar year, it should be fine though
it will be at a different pace,” he added.
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