The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) today published a report on the electric vehicle industry in India, highlighting the journey of EV car-hailing company BluSmart.

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The report, ‘Advancing electrification of ride-hailing in India’, identified ride-hailing as one of the three most scalable use-cases for business and fleet EV adoption.

Launched in 2019, BluSmart claims that by implementing a strategy based on innovative approaches to ownership and utilization, it has managed to solve issues faced by traditional ride-hailing fleets and proved the business case for EV adoption in the ride-hailing market.

Since launch, BluSmart has completed 5 million clean kilometers. The company now operates a fleet of 300+ EVs and has installed 200+ chargers for their operations in cities and suburbs of Delhi and Mumbai.

The report also suggests some policy measures that governments could undertake to accelerate EV adoption in the ride-hailing market.

India is home to 22 of the world’s 30 most polluted cities and road transport is one of the fastest-growing sources of carbon emissions. In the wake of COVID-19, business has a vital role in making mobility systems cleaner, safer, more efficient and accessible, leading to a decarbonized and sustainable future.

The BluSmart case study is the first out of three demonstration projects that will be covered through a series of reports. Insights from these three reports will further inform a set of policy recommendations that WBCSD is developing for the Indian government in an upcoming paper on Policy & Regulatory Measures.

“This decade is crucial for electrification of mobility in India. A slow transition would mean tens of millions of additional combustion engine vehicles on Indian roads. WBCSD is working with businesses in India to enable a faster transition to electric vehicles,” said Thomas Deloison, Director, Mobility at WBCSD.

“Ride-hailing is growing fast in India and we need to ensure that this progress is sustainable. BluSmart's fleet with Mahindra’s eVerito sedan has shown that electric ride-hailing is both technically and financially viable today. This WBCSD report summarizes their implementation experience and will further help others to venture into EV fleet segment” said Mahesh Babu, MD & CEO at Mahindra Electric Mobility Limited.

“We thank WBCSD for partnering with a young start-up and bringing out insights into EV adoption in the ride-hailing services through this report. Since inception we have touched 200,000+ citizens of Delhi NCR and we are pleased by the positive feedback on electric mobility and people's enthusiasm to make a change in their everyday lives by adopting a cleaner and greener way of travelling. We believe that the sheer impact on air-quality and climate change will make electric ride-hailing the preferred way for India to move forward. At BluSmart it is our commitment to accelerate the adoption of affordable shared electric mobility and improve the safety and quality of life in our cities,” saidAnmol Jaggi, Co-Founder and CEO at BluSmart Mobility.

Jaggi added that to achieve business viability for ride-hailing operations using EVs, BluSMart is increasing vehicle utilization level through higher driver-to-car ratios. The venture is also investing in a comprehensive charging network with redesigned parking bays to ensure minimum disruption in operations.