Zoomcar aims to go international; aims ZAP model for Indian business

Self-drive car rental company Zoomcar has announced its plans of foraying into international markets and is strongly betting on Zoomcar Associate Program (ZAP) for its next milestone.

Recently, Zoomcar successfully launched its one-way intercity travel where a user can pick up a car from one city and drop it to another.

Since its inception in April 2013, Zoomcar reported strong unit economics in most of the cities in India with almost nine lakh trips in 25 cities with a ticket size of about Rs. Four to six thousand on an average.

The exponential growth and scale witnessed by Zoomcar has firmly established it as a leading player in the Indian self-driven car industry. Zoomcar currently has more than 20lakh registered users PAN India with 3000 fleet.

Zoomcar's ZAP (Zoom Associate Program) is another feather in the hat for its success where the company has managed to cover about 20 percent of its fleet with 600 registered users. Zoomcar offers more than 20 models covering hatchbacks, sedans, SUVs and luxury cars in majority of tier I and tier II cities.

The metro and non-metros contribute 80 percent and 20 percent to the entire profitable business respectively. Zoomcar, which currently has a team size of around 200+ employees plans to increase its fleet size by 2x and, clock 2x revenue this financial year.

"To begin with, our first move would be towards Asia and then eventually get into Africa, which is quite an uncharted market. From the tech point of view, there is a huge opportunity in Africa as few companies have come out with unique innovation whereas the demographics are like India which again highlights a scope for a breakthrough chance," said CEO and co-founder Zoomcar, Greg Moran.

Zoomcar's ZAP major revenue stream model will help the company achieve its target. Over next two to three years, Zoomcar is targeting to have 25,000 cars in 30 cities PAN India for which its ZAP would account 85-90 percent fleet.

The company is in talks with various State governments to solve the regulatory issues around having a commercial licence for a private car. ZAP allows users as well as other individuals to buy one or more vehicles, which can be leased at ZAP to operate on a revenue sharing model.

ZAP provides monthly earnings to car owners and offers 25 percent off on all weekday bookings for the duration of 30 months lease. A hatchback has the potential to generate a net earning of Rs. 10,000 to 15,000 per month after deductions for cost of service maintenance, fuel and GST if a customer lists the car on Zoomcar's platform for 15 days.

Zoomcar's another strong IoT innovation Cadabra is a flagship full stack solution to transform vehicles into IoT-enabled vehicles. Equipped with Bluetooth and 4G cellular connectivity, Cadabra tracks several items of information and driver behavior, including fuel levels, clutch position, harsh braking, inconsistent acceleration, seat belt usage and engine health, among others. The solution also offers the possibility of over-the-air updates (OTA), which has helped Zoomcar to add more functionality.