- In an interview with Business Insider,
Zoomcar CEO Greg Moran said that he is betting on a 200-300% surge in demand. - Zoomcar finds itself in the sweet spot where people will avoid ride sharing or shared mobility services and will also not want to invest in new cars because of the financial crunch.
- To capitalise on this, the company is also offering a 50% discount as well as 50% cashback on bookings, even after it saw no revenues coming in since
lockdown .
In an interview with Business Insider, Moran said that as operations resumed in May, Zoomcar — which leases cars on rental and subscription basis — is seeing a robust pickup in its overall business.
“Last couple of months have been quite a wild ride for everyone and particularly for those in the mobility sector. But the last few weeks in May, we began to gradually build up operations and saw bookings and subscriptions come back in a strong way. We are already seeing a 400% rise in demand and we expect this to settle down at 200-300% over the next few months,” said Moran.
The eight-year old Zoomcar finds itself in the sweet spot where people will avoid ride sharing or shared mobility services and will also not want to invest in new cars because of the financial crunch and recession. To capitalise on this, the company is also offering a 50% discount as well as 50% cashback on bookings, even after it saw no revenues coming in since lockdown.
“This is a great way to celebrate the end of lockdown. It is a way to reinitiate the overall business,” said Moran, who believes even the two-month pause in business won’t hurt them much.
According to reports, Zoomcar revenue had grown from ₹157 crore in FY18 to ₹266 crore in FY19.
With aviation being the worst hit due to the coronavirus pandemic, companies in the travel and tourism industry are now betting on “driving” destinations. From OYO to Mahindra, hotels and resorts are expecting business to pick up as people go for weekend getaways. And Zoomcar fits into this perfectly.
“People are now looking for shorter term mobility access as opposed to a long term investment. We have seen a rise in demand for cars for personal work and emergency use cases. Rentals for intercity travel are up and a lot of people are opting for one way travel,” he said.
As people start taking flights to travel, Zoomcar thinks there will be an “astronomically huge” surge in demand.
Zoomcar had last raised funds of $20 million in February 2020 from Sony Innovation fund and was set to raise another $70 million. It is also backed by investors like Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd (M&M), Ford Smart Mobility, Sequoia Capital.
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