BluSmart to break even by March; two mfg units on cards: Anmol Jaggi

The EV ride hailing service plans to double its fleet by year end; to explore quick hail

BluSmart, an electric mobility player in the National Capital Region's ride hailing space, is gearing for expansion with a slew of new services and businesses, ranging from offering quick hail to venturing into new cities and having in-house EV manufacturing.

The parent company, Gensol Engineering, is setting up two manufacturing units – one for four-wheelers, the others a unique offering of three-wheeler reverse trike EVs, Anmol Singh Jaggi Co-founder and CEO, BluSmart told Business Standard. Jaggi is also chairman and managing director, Gensol Engineering, a listed firm with interests across the green energy supply chain.

Jaggi, who in the last two decades has been a first mover in several sectors ranging from carbon trading, green energy advisory, O&M for renewable plants is expecting to create a similar niche with BluSmart.

Road to profit

“We are just months away from making profits and when we do, we would be the first ride-hailing service to break even. We would be increasing the number of locations we serve and building more charging infrastructure. Given that our per-km running cost is lower than other ride hailing services such as Uber, Ola and Meru, the break-even is right across the horizon for us,” Jaggi said.

The average EV running cost at BluSmart per day (which includes lease cost, driver payout, fuel, maintenance & insurance) is around Rs 2,500. The firm's per-km running cost is Rs 1.5, which Jaggi said is one-third that of a typical CNG cab on competitors platforms in Delhi NCR and one-fifth of typical diesel car run on competitors platforms in Delhi NCR and Bengaluru.

“We have a competitive cost structure with an average net fare of Rs 300-350 per ride. BluSmart currently clocks seven trips per car per day and with improving network effects owing to better supply density, is inching towards the mark of eight trips per car per day, at which we shall break even,” Jaggi said.

Stepping into manufacturing

Launched in 2019, BluSmart started its operations in select areas of Delhi and Gurugram. Jaggi along with Punit Goyal founded the company which has an interesting line up of investors – family office of S K Munjal, chairman, Hero Enterprise, Ka Enterprises which is family office of movie actor Deepika Padukone and Rajesh Agarwal, co-founder of Micromax. bP ventures led the $25 million Series A round funding of BluSmart with an investment of $13 million.

On the debt front, BluSmart has raised Rs 267 crore from state owned IREDA in March 2022 for setting up EV charging and tied up debt financing of Rs 1,000 crore with Power Finance Corporation, one of India’s leading power sector NBFC.

Unlike other cab hailing services, BluSmart owns the cars and has drivers on contractual wage. BluSmart’s parent company Gensol Engineering currently procures EVs from Tata Motors which is their biggest supplier, MG Motors and Renault. These cars are then given on lease to BluSmart.

While the company has a consistent relation with Tata Motors which supplies close to 500 cars to Gensol per month, Jaggi said plans are afoot to set up their own manufacturing.

The company is setting up two manufacturing units in Pune and Sanand respectively. In the Pune unit, the electric vehicle arm of the parent company Gensol Engineering will manufacture a three-wheeler reverse trike vehicle. The company acquired a US-based start-up (Jaggi did not disclose its name), for the same. He said manufacturing would commence in April this year and that the firm is aiming Rs 5 lakh per unit cost.

“Gensol will have an in-house manufacturing facility with this venture and we would help bring down the cost of EV in the country. We are looking at an initial investment of Rs 220 crore for the manufacturing venture. It will help increase Gensol’s topline in phase-1 of manufacturing in the range of Rs 500-600 crore during FY24,” Jaggi said.

In the Sanand plant, Gensol EV would start production by FY25. Jaggi said land has been acquired for the same.

Expanding operations

As part of its expansion plans, BluSmart will have 4,000-plus EVs by the end of March 2023 in Delhi NCR, which would be then doubled by the year end. It currently has a fleet of 3000 cars.

“We will be looking to have 1,000-plus EVs in Bengaluru in the coming quarter and grow from there. Other locations of expansion are in and around the NCR and also looking at major metro cities,” he said adding some of the existing areas where they operate would have quick hail service as soon as the fleet is expanded.

Currently, BluSmart works on pre pre-booking basis. It has started ‘express ride’ during non-peak hours (11 a.m.–4 p.m.) in Gurugram and will soon roll it out in South Delhi. Jaggi said they will also start ‘insta hail’ soon, a service area where they lag behind Ola and Uber. Though the service would be restricted to select locations.

For the enhanced fleet, BluSmart would also set up more charging infrastructure zones of its own in South Delhi and Gurugram. It has also tied up with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation to set up charging infrastructure at 30 metro stations.