EVbooth, is North East India's first community based electric vehicle charging platform

Without adequate support infrastructure, more specifically the charging stations, users of electric vehicles are constantly on the edge as they fear that they will run out of battery much before their destinations. This is called Range Anxiety and Range Anxiety is one of the biggest challenges in terms of adaptation of electric mobility in India. 

Please tell us everything about EVbooth? In other words please share everything in terms of your operations, the logistics involved etc?

EVbooth, is North East India's first community based electric vehicle charging platform, for all types of electric 2, 3 and 4 wheelers. Through EVbooth, you can find an EV charging station in your favourite restaurant, a nearby mall, in cafes, in neighborhood stores, grocery stores, hotels, offices and apartments.

EVbooth's smart electric vehicle charging network has its proprietary IoT enabled and cost effective charge points, which hosts can purchase to create a private or public network of EV chargers for themselves and their EV guests. Hosts can wish to monetise on energy that is consumed on their network by using the EVbooth platform.

Our unique platform connects EV enthusiasts, drivers, fleet owners or simply a curious mind from across the country and aims to build an engaging electric vehicle community.

However, currently there are some challenges in terms of EV adoption. These challenges exist despite the fact that India is home to 35 of the world's 50 most polluted cities and over a million lives are lost every year due to pollution.

Now EV's are one of the fastest emerging solutions in the context of pollution. The future of electric vehicles in India is inevitable. However, the question at hand is how quickly we will be able to change to electric vehicles.

One of the biggest challenges of EV adaptation is the lack of electric vehicle charging infrastructure. The cost involved in developing the charging infrastructure is too high and OEM's and governments can only do so much to create this inorder to support their initial adaptation. Without a charging infrastructure, mass adaptability is a huge problem.

Without adequate support infrastructure, more specifically the charging stations users of electric vehicles are constantly on the edge as they fear that they will run out of battery much before their destinations. This is called Range Anxiety and Range Anxiety is one of the biggest challenges in terms of adaptation of electric mobility in India.

In a country obsessed with the idea of 'millage kitna deti hai', it is indeed very difficult for people to switch to electric vehicles after knowing the lack of charging infrastructure. Therefore a robust EV-charging infrastructure is the only way forward for mass adaptability of electric vehicles.

At EVbooth we have identified some key challenges and are addressing them. EV owners living in apartments and societies find it difficult to charge their vehicles as management bodies of apartments and societies lack the provisions to bill the EV owner for the consumption of electricity in common areas.

Another challenge is that electric 3 wheeler owners have a serious challenge to increase the usability of their autos as due to lack of charging infrastructure they are forced to retire for the day after only six to seven hours of usage. Also we have observed that new EV owners want to install cost effective chargers at houses of friends and families and one at their office (consider a scenario where you step out to visit friends or family for few hours and you are always worried about the remaining charge in your car). Finally new and old real estate developers and societies now require to reserve 5% to 20% of their total parking space for electric vehicles and are looking for a cost effective solution. Retail outlets, hotels, cafes, restaurants are also looking for EV charging solution to serve their existing customers and attract new ones. These were our key opportunities.

Our smart, IOT enabled, low cost and scalable AC001 chargers are designed keeping in mind the need of current and future EV drivers. These Smart Booths are capable of charging electric cycles, electric bikes, electric autos and electric cars.

At the cost of being repetitive I reiterate that the fastest way, one can help combat range anxiety of the EV user is to have a robust network of charging stations across cities. At present most of the charging solutions available in the market are limited or expensive. By using our technology we can install EV charging points at every corner of the city at a very cost effective and scalable model. Our cost of a single AC EVBooth is between 5k and 10k and our partners can earn Rs 3000 to 6000 per month per machine.

In Phase One we are working to create a robust charging infrastructure comprising of more than 300 charging points in the city of Guwahati. We envisage 2000 charging points across Assam by end of the year.

In Phase Two we plan to start installing fast chargers across cities and highways connecting cities making intercity travel using an EV a reality.

All you have to do is download the app, sign in, add your vehicle and you're good to go!

I take this opportunity to apprise about some EVbooth features. Our cloud based solutions for connected chargers, help drivers to locate, book, navigate, pay and charge their electric vehicles. Our Connected Services provide EVbooth chargers to be accessible in real time, helping our hosts and operation centres to monitor usage and consumption 24/7. We also have a transparent pricing mechanism where users can check prices beforehand: They can check charging prices of multiple stations within the application so that they can stick to their budget. There is also the provision of seeing the real-time availability of the station (remote monitoring). In addition we have easy payment options and users can use all major credit/debit cards, UPI, net banking etc.

What was the inspiration behind your startup? Tell us everything about your entrepreneurial journey.

I started this company with my wife, Nandini and my brother Shashi. We were always very concerned about the increasing pollution in our cities and sometime in mid 2019 we decided that we need to do something about it. We started to study the impact of the increasing number of vehicles in our cities and realised that transiting to electric vehicles was an immediate priority. Although we knew that EV was the answer we immediately also realised that although some sectors were already transiting to EVs (mainly the E2W and E3W segment) the adaption was not fast enough and the main cause was the lack of charging infrastructure. It was always a chicken and egg situation- companies were reluctant to invest in EVs as the market was too small and people were hesitant to invest in charging infrastructure as the number of vehicles was almost negligible. Also the ROI was very poor, mainly due to high cost of chargers during those days. We thought if we could bring down the cost of charges by providing cost effective chargers which can be used to create a basic charging grid, it will give the current EV users and future EV buyers the confidence of shifting to EV's and help remove the fear of getting stranded on the road because of the vehicle running out of charge.

We started with two goals. First to keep the cost of each charger below 5000 rupees and second making the device small enough so that it can be installed easily on a wall or a pillar. After much iteration we finally got a working prototype which achieved the goal that we had set at the start. The week we were to launch our service India went into a nationwide lockdown, and there was a time we didn't know what our future was. That is when we came into contact with Assam Start Up. As part of Assam StartUp's cohort 3 we got to know more about the market and the whole eco system which helped us launch our services in Guwahati in April 2022. In the last three months of starting our services we have installed a substantial number of chargers in the city of Guwahati and have started getting enquiries from all over Assam and few other states.

Please lend an overview of the electric vehicle market in India?

EV Market is seeing a phenomenal growth in India. When we started our research in 2019, we had only 2-3 models of E4Ws and may be 10 or 12 models of E2Ws. The 3 wheeler segment was seeing a much faster growth and it was mainly due to low cost at that time. In the last three years both in terms of technology around EV's and EV charging infrastructure there has been unimaginable growth. Now we have a new EV vehicle getting launched every couple of weeks, with almost all major manufacturers across segments venturing into EV's. Tata alone plans to sell more than 50000 Nixon EVs this year and this is a huge number.

Assam is the fifth fastest growing EV market in the country and as per a survey, Assam has more than 1,50,000 electric 3 wheelers. The growth in both E2W and E4W this year is more than 200 percent compared to last year.

With Covid and lockdown people have started to realise the benefits of a cleaner environment and fresh air; something that we thought was never possible. Also the rising fuel prices is another reason why more and more individuals and businesses are finding EV's very attractive.

The difference in per kilometre cost of running a petrol car versus an electric vehicle is almost Rs8. Therefore if one drives a moderate 20,000 kms per year he/she shall save Rs 1,60,000 per annum in fuel cost alone. For individuals pollution from ICE vehicles in the vicinity is very pressing. If you are walking on Zoo road or GS Road today you can relate to the situation. Density of vehicles and slow moving traffic especially are more dangerous as it affects the air you are breathing. If within a decade we can all shift to electric vehicles the problem of vehicular pollution shall be controlled forever.

What is your educational qualifications and professional background?

With a background in telecom engineering and a Masters degree in Business from Durham University Business School, I have over 18 years of experience with start ups, enterprise management, technology and retail. I have engaged in different roles spanning product development, corporate strategy, client relationship management, marketing, operations and early stage business support. I have built start- ups and generated sustainable high income for many businesses.

Please elaborate on how your enterprise is making a (or envisaged to) contribution to the society and larger social good?

The whole purpose of our enterprise is positive social change. We believe this can only be achieved when we create income opportunities for all; thereby our ecosystem is so designed that anyone who is interested can become what we call a 'chargerpreneur'. As I mentioned earlier, faster adoption of EV's in India and especially North East India is only possible when people realise that our cities are EV ready, meaning the requisite support infrastructure is well in place.

The EV ecosystem has the potential to create numerous new jobs in the form of chargerpreneurs, technicians, mechanics, service centres, charging zones, etc. I personally believe that there will be many new job opportunities as we progress on this path of a cleaner and greener means of transportation. Many new business models will evolve to support this whole new industry.

We at EVbooth already have couple of business models for individuals, businesses, apartments and societies and we would like to take this opportunity to state that very soon we shall be adding few more options for people to become Chargerpreneurs. Infact we shall be making a formal announcement of the same in a week's time. The Idea is to create an equal opportunity for people to become a Chargerpreneur by investing as low as Rs 5000 in a device and becoming a host.

We as a company look forward to invest heavily in North East India and are aligned with the government's Look East Policy. As stated earlier, we shall be creating a network of 2000 plus charging points in Assam alone by end of 2022 and today we are already the biggest charge point operator in the State with almost 50 charging points. About 40 more are planned for the month of July. We expect a substantial growth in our numbers (on a monthly basis) from this month onwards as more and more people are becoming aware of our services and the opportunity to be a Chargerpreneur.

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