Turning idle cars into income: How Zoomcar Hosts earn ₹25,000+ monthly

rom side hustle seekers to full-fledged entrepreneurs, Indians are turning their cars into opportunities

Zoomcar Holdings, India’s leading car-sharing marketplace, has released its Hosting Insights 2025, revealing how everyday Indians are converting underutilised cars into reliable monthly income and small-scale businesses.

In 2024, Zoomcar hosts collectively earned ₹113 crore, supported by a growing community of 25,000 hosts across India. The report shows that hosting is no longer an experimental side hustle—it is becoming a mainstream income source.

Car hosting explained:

Who hosts: Individual car owners.

What is hosted: The car itself—your vehicle sits idle most of the time and can be rented out. 

Car hosting is simple: when you’re not using your car, you share it with trusted guests via Zoomcar.

How it works:

You list your car on the platform with details like model, availability, and pricing.

Verified users (guests) book your car for the time they need it.

You earn money for each booking.

Earnings: Average hosted cars earn ₹25,000–₹30,000 per month, enough to cover EMIs or provide extra income.

Additional features: Options like home delivery of the car to the guest can boost earnings further.

Think of it as turning your idle car into a small business—you provide access to a vehicle when you’re not using it, and the platform handles bookings, payments, and insurance. 

Source: Zoomcar

According to Zoomcar, a typical hosted car generates ₹25,000–₹30,000 per month, comfortably covering an average ₹18,000 monthly EMI for popular models. New hosts start earning quickly, with the first booking arriving within 3–4 days of listing. As hosts gain experience, many expand their operations—12% now manage multiple cars, and new host sign-ups have surged 61% year-on-year.

The next growth wave is coming from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities. In 2025 alone, 3,755 new cars were added to the platform, with 21% of listings coming from outside major metros. This trend signals a rising wave of local entrepreneurship, giving more households access to supplemental income.

Trust and safety remain central to Zoomcar’s model. Hosts report 92% positive guest behaviour, rating guests an average of 4.5 out of 5. Active hosts facilitate around 60 bookings per year, collectively powering 173 million kilometres of travel in 2024. Opting for Zoomcar’s Home Delivery service can further boost earnings by 25%, highlighting the growing role of convenience in demand.

“Car hosting is building real economic opportunity, fast,” said Abhilash Kasliwal, Business Head at Zoomcar. “With quick first bookings, transparent trust systems, and meaningful monthly earnings, thousands of Indians are offsetting EMIs and scaling into micro-entrepreneurs. This is how we expand access to both mobility and income.”