NEW DELHI: Indian ride-hailing startup BluSmart was seeking to challenge Ola and Uber for market share in India with bets on an all-electric taxi fleet and an aggressive bid to lure disgruntled passengers and drivers from the incumbents.
According to Reuters, a clean energy push by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is expected to significantly change India’s transport industry in the years ahead, with significant implications for ride-hailing firms.
For dominant players Uber and SoftBank-backed Ola, a complete shift to electric vehicles is likely a massive undertaking as both companies need help with driver retention and customer satisfaction issues.
As the latest entrant, BluSmart is looking to seize the moment by beating its burning engine-powered rivals on electrification, reliability and cleanliness through direct management of its fleet and drivers. For starters, drivers can’t cancel bookings received on their BluSmart app.
BlueSmart cracked quality of service
Jasmeet Khurana said, “BluSmart has cracked quality of service with clean vehicles which are on time. Having your fleet allows you to do that,” who leads the mobility decarbonization initiative at the World Economic Forum. “It used the transition to electric to get its foot in the door.”
BluSmart has used Uber’s struggles to drum up investor support.
The confidential BluSmart investor deck from March, reviewed by Reuters, stated, “Uber is losing riders, drivers and market share in India”, and its extension model of driver-owners is “crashing” its goal of soaring fuel prices.
Uber didn’t respond to the request for comment on this story. Still, its India head Prabhjeet Singh told Reuters in February the firm was including more vehicles and drivers each month and continuing to address service concerns.
Uber started operations in 2013 in India, offering low fares for riders and good incentives to drivers. Home-grown rival Ola started in 2010.
Both companies boomed across India but have recently struggled as riders faced high cancellations and drivers got upset with decreased financial incentives, forcing many to quit. Ola didn’t respond to a request for comment.
