Uber's Secret Weapon in the Battle Against EV Fleets

Last Saturday, I booked a regular Uber ride from Mega Mall Gurgaon - and, I was in for a pleasant surprise.

A Tata Express EV rolled up - clean vehicle, polite driver, Uber Electric branding on the door panels. Quite the atypical Uber experience:

— Rahul Mathur (@Rahul_J_Mathur) June 18, 2023

I had a chat with the driver & noticed the car is owned by “EGT Rent A Car Pvt Ltd” - suspicious name? Not Uber! EGT is a subsidiary of Everest Fleet.

Some insights I found on Uber “secret weapon” in the battle against EV fleets like BluSmart - introducing Everest Fleet Pvt Ltd

— Rahul Mathur (@Rahul_J_Mathur) June 18, 2023

(1) Everest is a managed fleet operator with almost ~10K CNG vehicles & (on-roll) drivers
- Almost 80% of Everest's fleet runs exclusively for Uber 🤯
- They've been around since 2016 & raised ~$9M (more on this soon!)

— Rahul Mathur (@Rahul_J_Mathur) June 18, 2023

Fun fact: Most of us have this romantic belief that Uber drivers are owner-operators. Sometimes, this isn’t true - to increase supply on platform - Uber does have fleet partnerships (esp to meet late night & surge hours demand). Next time, check the owner name printed on Uber 😉

— Rahul Mathur (@Rahul_J_Mathur) June 18, 2023

(2) Everest has an asset heavy (”BluSmart”) and asset light (”Uber”) approach to business: 📊
- Per the company, ~67% of vehicles are company owned i.e. Everest has raised debt + equity to finance these purchases.
- The remaining 33%? You won’t believe it!

— Rahul Mathur (@Rahul_J_Mathur) June 18, 2023

3rd party investors buy debt instruments on platforms like Grip Invest & Jiraaf - this money is used to buy vehicles. 🤯

- Majority of drivers are on-roll employees who are given company accommodation
- Some drivers are “intrapreneurs” - fancy way of saying they earn a % of fees

— Rahul Mathur (@Rahul_J_Mathur) June 18, 2023

(3) Everest & Uber transitioning to EVs together ⚡
- Everest (Uber’s fleet partner) has signed a deal with Tata to get 5000 EVs
- Uber India has publicly committed to adding 25K EVs to its fleet in the next 2 years

Here's Uber <> Everest in a nutshell pic.twitter.com/ZzXrGKm8Bx

— Rahul Mathur (@Rahul_J_Mathur) June 18, 2023

Fun fact: Everest now has access to the same Tata vehicles as BluSmart. And, most freelance drivers won’t be able to pay the down payment on an EMI - so the only way Uber can get a “Green” option on its platform is via operators like Everest.

So, what’s the scheme here?

— Rahul Mathur (@Rahul_J_Mathur) June 18, 2023

From Uber’s POV - EV operators like Everest & Lithium Urban are the “weapon” to take on BluSmart in the EV ride hailing segment.

Uber has already launched a Rental business and a scheduled trips business.

So, EVs + Rental option + Schedule option == Uber’s “BluSmart”?

— Rahul Mathur (@Rahul_J_Mathur) June 18, 2023