Zoomcar focuses on marketplace model to increase its fleet

Kolkata, March 15 (IANS) Self-drive car rental company Zoomcar is aiming to triple its fleet this year through its marketplace model branded as ZAP and will steadily decrease its own existing cars, a company official said on Wednesday.

"Currently, out of the total fleet size of 3,000 cars across 17 cities in India, we have around 2,000 company-owned cars. We aim to increase the cars under marketplace model to 80 per cent by the end of December," said company's CEO and Co-Founder Greg Moran.

The company hoped to increase its fleet to 10,000 by the end of 2017, he said, and added that the company will expand its presence across 30 cities.

"It is not advantageous to own a car which is more than two years old," Moran said while explaining why the company will hive off its existing company-owned cars and concentrate more on bringing partners on board, which, as per the company, will drive its future business.

According to him, this move will result in its net margin increasing by 30-40 per cent.

"At the city level, we are already profitable, and this (calendar) year, we will be profitable at the company level," he said at the launch of ZAP model in the city.

The model asks people to buy a new car and enjoy driving it but at the same time, instead of keeping their car idle when not driving, it encourages them to put their car on the company's platform to earn from renting and easing their EMI payment.

Moran claimed that individual car owners who have bought their vehicle on equated monthly instalment (EMI) can recover 70 per cent of their EMI cost if they are able to rent out their car for 20 days a month on its platform.

He said the company is adequately funded with total &50 million and it had already raised funds from Ford Smart Mobility LLC, Sequoia Capital, Nokia Growth Partners and Cyber Carrier.