EV Cabs in India
This is a summary of my experiences using various EV Cabs in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and more.
I came across an article stating that Uber is going to start offering the option of booking electric vehicles (EVs). They are kicking off this service in Delhi NCR and then expand it to other cities. With this, EV cabs which are currently available mostly from boutique / small players, will become a mainstream option in metro cities.
I had travel plans to multiple Indian cities, and figured I should give these services a try, jot down my experience of using these cabs and their services, and share. This post is a result of experiences collected in the months of September & October 2022.
As usual, if you’d like to skip the text and see the summary on a Google Sheet, he7re you go!
EVs v/s conventional ride hailing apps
The primary difference, as of writing this post, between hailing an Uber / Ola v/s any of the EV cabs available is that you need to pre book your ride (from a few hours to a couple of days in advance). Your plans need to be in place before you can decide to go ahead and book one. Works perfectly well for a drop to the airport / railway station or a regular home - office drop. Want instant trips? EV taxis aren’t completely there yet.
This is because the number of EV cabs in most regions are limited and the services are growing slowly. Plus, most of the cabs in service are often the older Tigor or the Mahindra eVerito. These cars usually have a range of 150 kms with AC on. Thus, taking a relatively long / cross city trip in these cabs is difficult, but things are changing quickly.
Let’s say you pre book a cab on one of these apps. What is the guarantee that a cab will show up? Only BluSmart allows you to pre book a cab and you are sure that a cab will show up. With the other relatively newer apps, the cabs may or may not show up. It is either a supply problem or an operations issue, which can be looked at in more detail by the operators to ensure a seamless experience to the end customer.
If someone is pre-booking a ride, especially to say an airport or a train station, it is a sureshot ride for the operators. Cancelling or rescheduling these trips would happen rarely, one assumes. Thus, the operators should look into prioritising such customers who are pre booking their cabs, especially in cases when the pickup is in their operating zone and when they do not have enough cabs in the city.
How is an EV cab business different from an Uber or an Ola?
The cars, as of now, are not owned by the drivers in the case of EV cab services. They are owned by the app operator. The drivers don’t have to pay for fuel (charging) or maintenance. That too is taken care of by the operator. The drivers (based on conversations across cities) seem to be on a fixed basic monthly salary ranging from INR 12,000 to INR 20,000 (USD 145 to USD 240). The apps also provide an incentive for each pickup / successful ride completion - somewhere in the ballpark of INR 50 - INR 75 (USD 0.6 - USD 0.9) per ride.
There may be additional incentives provided by the cab operators based on other metrics such as rides completed, hours logged on the app, total revenue brought in by the driver etc. None of these metrics make sense to judge the performance of the drivers, but that’s another story. The drivers are usually treated as employees and work in shifts. The total take home salary can be anywhere between INR 25,000 to INR 30,000 (USD 300 to USD 360) per month.
The pitfall of this model for the users is that EV taxis are not very cost efficient for sub 5km rides. This is because there’s a flat base fare of INR 50 to INR 75 depending on the app. This flat fee is what allows the fleet operator to pay salaries to the drivers.
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BluSmart Cabs (Bengaluru, Delhi NCR)
BluSmart is probably the biggest player in the B2C space for EV Taxis in India. The service is available in Delhi NCR region (in select areas), and Bengaluru (in select areas) is a recent expansion.
My experience with BluSmart has been pretty amazing. I got out of the T3 terminal of the Delhi airport, downloaded the app, registered myself and booked a cab to my destination hotel in Gurgaon. Smooth process. Just had to walk a bit to the dedicated BluSmart pickup area in the parking lot of the airport (which is the same for Uber / Ola as well). Pro tip - you don’t need an app and you can get a car booked right at the airport pickup area. There are usually 3-4 cars waiting to get riders.
My day usually involved going to meetings across town in Gurgaon, so I was unable to do all my rides in BluSmart, but I availed the services whenever possible. The fares were around 30% cheaper than a regular Uber / Ola cab and the drivers reached the pickup point 10-15 mins in advance. They didn’t bother me by calling up, nor did any of the drivers cancel. This experience has been such a pleasure and the other ride hailing apps can learn a thing or two. The reason this works is because, as a regular reader of the blog, you are aware that planning is a key part of driving an electric car. Additionally, the drivers are salaried professionals, so they have a ‘fixed job’ mindset. Because the rides are pre booked, it gives the cab operators a chance to optimize the loads on the cars.
The app is designed well. It shows what regions are hotspots and where cab availability is easiest. The app also provides one way drops to cities like Chandigarh (with interim city drops along the highway), Jaipur and Agra from Delhi NCR region. You can also rent the car for a day, based on the hours and the kilometers you plan to get chauffeured around. After getting fed up with not getting the cabs everytime I needed, I decided to rent a BluSmart for around 10h / 100kms for the day. I got a BYD E6 with a range of 450 kms, which was more than capable of crisscrossing the city multiple times. The rental model was simple, keep entering the next destination and the driver would know where to go next.
The app has a wallet system and you can load up money to book rides. The app, in a limited trial run, currently allows for express bookings in popular Gurgaon areas from 11 am to 4pm. I tried it and was elated to get a cab the way you get one on conventional taxi apps.
CabE (Mumbai)
CabE is a service based out of Mumbai. This was actually one of the first electric cab services I got to use earlier this year. The app on iOS is passable and barely works. There’s no option to add multiple stops on the route. However, the service works differently than BluSmart.
So CabE has under 100 cabs in Mumbai. Most of them are usually at their charging hubs which are scattered across the city. There’s definitely hubs in these areas - Marol (Andheri East), Vikhroli, Santacruz East, BKC and Sewri. Whenever you book a cab, or schedule a cab, the ride is given to the drivers at the nearest charging hub in your area. There are drivers waiting for the ride to ring on their phone. For instant bookings, a cab is allotted from the charging hub, and the driver takes the car from the hub and leaves to pick you up.
Based on Mumbai traffic, it is possible that you can leave from your destination 30 mins after you’ve booked the cab. For bookings that are scheduled in advance, the cab is allotted so that you can leave at the time you’ve requested for the departure. There is no guarantee provided by the app that you’ll be getting a car. The app just removes the pre-booked ride from the “rides” tab if they are unable to find a cab driver. Earlier they used to alert that a cab couldn’t be found, but they have stopped it in the latest update.
I used this service quite often and eventually got used to it. I’d book the cab at times when I knew I had more than 30-45 mins to leave. The cab would travel around 5-10 kms from the charging hub, pick me up and drop me off to my destination which was usually a 10-15 km ride. The fare was predictable and only varied if the time spent in traffic was a lot more than estimated. After the drop the driver waits for a new ride to come in, or otherwise heads to the nearest charging hub to recharge the car. Slightly inconvenient if you have an early morning train / flight, but if you live near their charging hubs, you have higher chances to get a cab because the app is still not very popular in the city.
Their operations are fairly inefficient and it is because they are stuck in a chicken and egg problem. Maybe the owners haven’t been able to secure enough financing to have thousands of cars roaming on the streets of Mumbai.
CabE does provide outstation services, but I have never had a chance to try it out. At the end of every trip, you have an option to either make the payment by RazorPay integration on their app or via the company’s UPI QR code shared by the driver.
SnapE (Kolkata)
SnapE is a service based out of Kolkata. Their services were expected to start in the last week of Oct 2022, however I was lucky to try out their services before they officially started (mid October). The app, given that it is a new service, is great. There are some features that are missing, which I guess will be added in due time.
I pre booked two cabs during my brief stay in Kolkata. I got a confirmation call from both the driver and the app operator (probably because it is new) confirming my ride hours in advance. I decided to test out the service by pre-booking a cab slightly further away from their hub at around 11pm at night. I was unable to get the cab and the app operator called me to tell me that their late night services have not yet started.
The cab that I got on both instances were the same, along with the same driver. It was a Tigor and the charging hub was only a few kms away from where I was staying. The driver lived a few kms further away from the hub. One of the pre-booked rides was a 6am ride to the airport and the driver had to come all the way to the hub, pick up the car, and reach my location by 6am for the pick up.
Siddharth, my friend who edits the articles and makes the trip maps for this blog, also tried pre-booking a cab for the airport. He didn’t get any confirmation whether the cab was booked or not, nor did he get any calls from the app operator. He had to eventually book a cab from Uber.
CapitalEV (Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar)
I had the chance to use CapitalEV cabs way back in June 2022. I was charging my own car at a charging hub of CapitalEV in Gandhinagar while on my drive from Mumbai to Delhi. Since their charging hub was a few kilometers away from the restaurant that I wanted to go to, I decided to use their services.
I didn’t have to use the app. I walked into their office and asked for someone to drop me at the restaurant. It was quick and easy. The cab ride was relatively expensive for the short distance. While coming back, I tried calling the office number, but the cab wasn’t available to pick me up.
Based on my conversation with the driver, there were around 100 cabs servicing Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad region. From their app, they have an EV Sedan and EV Prime option, thus meaning they have two types of EVs. Additionally, they also provide Outstation drops, though I am unaware of the range of the cars and where all it can go. CapitalEV had a dominant presence in Gandhinagar and they had their charging hubs all over the city, along with new ones being built in Ahmedabad.
EEETaxi (Bengaluru, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad)
I was headed to Hyderabad for some work and found out that EEETaxi was providing services in Hyderabad. I decided to test them out. They didn’t have an app, which was alright, so I went to the website. On the website, there was this big button to book a cab and it led me to a google form. Perfect. Meru had also started by taking bookings on call, so a google form isn’t too bad of a start. I wanted to book a cab from the airport to my hotel in Hyderabad, so I chose the airport / train station transfer. Their form was smart enough to ask for flight / train details.
The form said that they’ll update me about the cab at least two hours prior to the booking time. However, no one ever reached out from their team to confirm the booking. Eventually, I had to take an Uber to my destination.
MeruCabs (Delhi NCR, Mumbai)
I have seen MeruCabs offer electric cabs across Mumbai, but never had the chance to use their services. Given that Meru is a well established player, the assumption is that their services would be alright. News articles seem to suggest that Meru uses the Mahindra eVerito cabs, which would mean they can’t provide outstation or day long rental services based on the known range of the car..
The pricing for Meru cabs however is slightly weird. Their EV pricing is more than WagonR equivalent, probably CNG run cabs, which is a non starter. he fares aren't calibrated for the EV running costs.
In Mumbai, I had the option of going with Meru whenever I couldn’t get CabE. But in all cases, I found myself hailing an auto or taking an Uber. I learnt of Meru’s EV service very recently. Whenever I think of booking a cab in Mumbai, I am habituated to check on CabE first. This shows that capturing a user’s mindspace is important to be relevant in the market.
Evera Cabs (Delhi NCR)
The iOS Evera App doesn’t exist and I was unable to book a cab / see what city they are functional in.
However, I called them on their landline number and got to know that they are active only in the Delhi NCR region. They said they are using the newer models of Tata Tigor EV. It is cumbersome to book via a phone call and you have no visibility on whether you’ll be getting a cab or not. And as of now, I would look at booking with them only if BluSmart is not available.
GoGreenCabs (Nashik)
GoGreenCabs seems to be operational in Nashik mainly. From their website, it seems that they have the old Tigor models and Mahindra eVeritos. Have reached out for a comment about the services that offer,and this blog post will be updated if and when they do so. However, it is great that some operators are focused on tier 2 and tier 3 cities as the first point of expansion. It makes a lot of sense as the fleet size need not be that large, plus the range of the cars being used are more than sufficient for crisscrossing across the town.
B2B EV Cabs
There are some other players in the market providing their EV fleet to consumers. However, they are focused more on the B2B space, like Lithium, Gensol Mobility, etc. The B2B space provides fixed routes, relatively predictable incomes and lower operating costs for the businesses hiring their services. As a retail customer, I couldn’t try out these services (yet).
Are the drivers really happy with this new setup?
I spoke with many drivers during my time in these cabs. They are all pretty happy driving an electric cab, and previously used to work for someone else, either as a personal driver or under some bigger cab operator who had their cars in Uber or Ola. They have usually never owned a car and hence were working under someone. They somehow feel that this business model, in its current form, is not sustainable and are wanting to search for better job opportunities.
Because some of the cars used are from an older charging technology, they have to frequent the charging hubs more often and the charging times are higher too. Longer range cars and more charging hubs would make their lives easier and allow them to earn more money.
Conclusion
It is pretty clear that whoever has the most capital is poised to be a leader in this industry. Capital is needed to put a massive operator owned fleet on the ground. As long as the upfront costs for EVs are high, it is doubtful that we will see a gig economy type model for EV taxis. There has to be a third party financing push to incentivize fleet operators to switch to electric.
Having a good user experience on the app is also critical to get the masses to start using EV cabs. As of now, the BluSmart app has the best experience, better than Ola or Uber. The Meru Cabs app would come a close second, but I don’t have enough data points to comment about it. CabE really needs to step up their app game and the other players need to come up with an app before they start occupying users’ mind share.
So, the next time you are visiting one of these cities or if you are living in one of these cities, try giving Electric cabs a chance! Here’s some more data to convince you :
Also note, most of the new age EV apps don’t have any surge pricing unlike Uber / Ola. CabE charges 1.5x the fare for a journey post midnight till wee hours in Mumbai.
Data is from the past 6 months and crowdsourced from friends.
We shouldn’t forget that in many towns and cities, electric 3W autos and electric buses have become a common place and thus our means of transportation are turning electric day by day.
Incase you find out about a new cab app not covered in this list - please fill this form and I’ll add it to my existing sheet in the next iteration.
This piece can be re-published (CC BY-NC-SA) with a line mentioning ‘This was originally published on ExpWithEVs Substack’ and a link back to this page. In case of re-publishing, please alert priyansevs@gmail.com
Text, data and infographics - Priyans Murarka
Editing and infographics - Siddharth Agarwal