Mohit Rathod – Mumbai
Self drive car service is slowly gaining popularity among those who wish to enjoy the convenience of their own cars, without owning one. Numerous such service providers have sprouted recently and have attracted positive response. One such service provider is Revv, which provides self drive car rentals for hourly, daily, weekly and monthly requirements. The company drops and picks up cars from customer’s doorstep. Currently, Revv’s fleet consists of 300 cars across three cities – Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. Its pricing model includes costs such as taxes, insurance etc, except fuel, which is paid by the customer.
Outstation travel forms the largest segment for Revv, which includes leisure and work-related trips. Intercity travel is also considered an important market, due to paucity of intercity mobility options. Over a period of time, the company has seen a larger share in work-related self-drive segment, which is expected reach 60-70 per cent share in the long term.
Speaking to Express TravelWorld, Karan Jain, co-founder and COO, Revv, stated that this concept can become a US$ 3-5 billion revenue market by 2020. He said, “Taking a leaf from China’s market, self-drive concept was non-existent there until 2007, and just eight years from then, the market is already more than US$ 4 billion there. India’s car rental market is bigger than China’s. The sharp growth in domestic travel, both work and leisure, will be a big driver for this. Also, with the entire ecosystem (self-drive rentals, taxi hailing apps and ride-sharing apps) coming together against private car ownership, the growth can be much sharper than what we are predicting.”
“India has the highest penetration of people who know how to drive, but the lowest penetration of car ownership. This essentially creates an opportunity for delinking car usage from car ownership, by allowing non-owners to access and use cars,” he added.
Commenting on market response, Jain, said, “We have seen rapid uptake by the customers despite minimal spend on marketing. Revv is already seeing repeat usage and positive customer feedback on its innovations.”
