Now, you can rent a cycle from Zoomcar

Self-drive car sharing platform Zoomcar on Wednesday announced the launch of PEDL, a technology-enabled cycle sharing service.

In this new segment, Zoomcar will provide individuals with a convenient, affordable, and environmentally friendly cycle sharing service for short trips around the city, and local use cases such as grocery shopping, errand running, and last mile commuting.

Zoomcar expects to cross 10,000 cycles on road in 2017 with much larger expansion plans to follow in 2018. After several weeks in the pilot, PEDL presently operates over 500 cycles in three cities - Bangalore (HSR Layout), Chennai (Besant Nagar) and Kolkata (Golf Greens).

PEDL was designed to complement Zoomcar's existing car sharing business through serving an additional part of the personal transportation stack. At its core, PEDL imbibes the principle of hyper-local urban mobility by offering cycles at multiple pickup points across various neighbourhoods in a city. At scale, PEDL will be present every 50-100 meters in a city.

"In recent times, we've observed a huge market gap for trips shorter than five kilometres and we firmly believe that the cycle 2.0 is best positioned to serve these use cases. PEDL strongly compliments our core car-sharing service as we continue to make a meaningful contribution to air quality improvement across Indian cities. At present, we're speaking to various governmental bodies to craft policies and design urban infrastructure that will help ensure the responsible propagation of dock less cycle sharing across the country," said CEO and co-founder Zoomcar, Greg Moran.

PEDL cycles come with various unique features including but not limited to custom designed aluminium alloy frames and drum brakes, anti-slip chains, airless solid tyres, and height adjustable seats. These cycles are designed to support over 24 months of intensive use while ensuring industry low maintenance costs and extremely high levels of customer satisfaction. The cycles are built with smart locks which are easily unlocked using a QR Code.

PEDL's robust IoT stack is an extension of Zoomcar's Cadabra IoT platform and includes real-time GPS tracking, solar battery charging, and built-in alarms. Each cycle also comes outfitted with a multipurpose basket to afford the customer greater convenience in travelling for work or leisure.

The process of using a PEDL is simple - walk up to a PEDL location, pay via Paytm, and drop the cycle off when done at any of the PEDL locations. PEDL cycles are priced for the masses at an affordable Rs 10 per half an hour. Limited time launch promotions are currently running in select areas.

Prior to the official PEDL launch, Zoomcar observed a strong civic push from a large number of individuals across cities as it related to clean air and congestion alleviation. As such, PEDL also has the option for anyone to become a Host by allowing cycles to be placed at the individual's residence.