One thing common between battery-swapping networks, food-delivery services and shared EV vehicles during weekend matches? MAXIMUM DEMAND.
We saw a huge spike in the number of delivery partners renting Yulu bikes during such times leading to increased ‘battery swapping’ demand at our ‘Max Network’ Stations. Though Yulu does not specifically belong to the service/delivery industry, our shared EV’s and Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS) network provides the backbone for gig delivery economy in the cities we are present in. How did we manage to create the largest shared EV fleet in India used by varied segments of the population, and built the biggest Battery-as-a-Service network in the country with 3 million+ battery swaps to make your match nights seamless? Let’s have a look at our story.
The Indian Challenge
Every step of our journey could be summed up by this quote – “humme manzil patha thi, lekin raastey khud hi banani thi”. With Yulu’s launch, our dream was to make urban mobility sustainable and though we had a clear vision of bringing this to life, juggling with the Indian infrastructure realities and its conditions was something our team spent countless hours discussing about. Over the period of time we created our first two niche EV products best suited for the Indian market- Yulu Miracle and Yulu DEX, and also became the country’s first shared EV mobility brand in the market. These two low-speed electric vehicles (LSEVs) were custom-built keeping in mind the Indian road conditions, climate and core consumers. Our next challenge was to build an operating model that could support shared EV mobility in a sustainable way, and after multiple iterations, today we are the largest shared EV mobility company in the country, with a robust network of over 10K EVs on the roads of Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi.
Initially, we catered only to riders looking for first and last mile connectivity, but during the pandemic we saw a shift in our primary consumer base. There was a spike in this new segment of people who began using our services extensively – gig delivery workers or as we all call them ‘Delivery Bhaiyas’. Today, gig delivery workers form a major segment of our consumer base and we already have a model designed that caters and enables sustainable employment opportunities to this underprivileged group, who would have otherwise not been able to enter the gig economy space without access to mobility.
As we cater to growing EV demand in the country, we are looking to have 1,00,000 shared EVs on the road by the end of this year. And as we implement this 10x growth plan, we also want to ensure the best solution in place to develop the EV ecosystem in India, that is both cost-effective and reliable. ‘Battery swapping’ is one of the most efficient ways to provide flexibility and reduce downtime of a shared EV vehicle. It keeps our vehicles running for a longer period of time, hence fulfilling higher consumer demand. So, that became our preferred path while building the battery swapping solution, and we knew that it was the most relevant solution for the Indian market where the majority of the population still prefers public or shared mobility for commuting.
What keeps our EVs seamlessly running on the road – Max Network. This network was built from scratch using the diverse Indian market knowledge, and by bringing together different hardware & software technologies to form a tailor-made and unique ecosystem where different entities (vehicle, battery, charging station, etc) communicate with each other on a seamless and real-time basis.
Like any new frontier that moves forward, our battery swapping network faced certain implementation challenges from technology, logistics and operations standpoint. But with time, we have succeeded in creating a reliable, affordable and predictable battery swapping solution across the network. Guided by the philosophy of ‘maximum access’, today you can spot a Max Network station in all the high visibility and footfall areas. Max Network has helped us improve our customer experience to a great extent, and our tailor-made Battery Management System (BMS) has proved that it is possible to implement reliable battery swapping solutions at scale too.
Battery as a Data Source
With Max Network, we have succeeded in creating a scalable, made-for-India battery swapping solution that is driven by data, to manage our battery pool. Data is the core of our operations, hence while creating the largest battery pool of the country, our order of priority were three things – safety, performance and reliability.
With our team continuously working on improving the specs, we have reached a place where we are able to know the state, status and health of all our batteries, in real-time. These smart batteries are constantly communicating with a central server helping us in predictive maintenance of our vehicles, while also increasing the safety of our batteries through continuous monitoring. The connected system of battery-vehicle telematics-cloud data has created a seamless network of data usage to keep our vehicles running smoothly and seamlessly for all the categories of our customers.
With this central server communication we are able to map the demand and vehicle usage for individual ride patterns in return, helping us predict vehicle and battery availability in high demand areas, and also enable us to predict consumer behavior patterns in certain cases! How? Let’s go back to our initial ‘weekend matches’ discussion. While we mentioned that we are not in the service/delivery business, we are able to predict which pockets or zones see high delivery demand during these specific times, and are able to cater to continuous vehicle and battery availability in those areas. We always strive to be ahead of our demand curve and ensure that the delivery partners who are using our shared EVs on a regular basis are well equipped to meet their targets without hassle and are able to fulfill their deliveries on time.