The platform will provide pick
up and drop facility on EVs,
e-scooters on rent.
Hyderabad: Electric vehicles (EVs) are the new rage in town – due to the rising fuel prices. While some companies are offering electric two-wheelers, some are looking at providing last-mile connectivity through EVs and some are purely into providing charging stations or batteries-on-demand.
One Hyderabad-based startup is pushing the limits in this space and has built a multi-modal ride sharing platform. The platform will provide pick up and drop facility on EVs, e-scooters on rent, charging stations, buy or sell electric two-wheelers and even provide servicing option. “We are building an ecosystem of electric vehicles,” says Srikanth Reddy, founder, Hala Mobility.
The T-Hub incubated startup had provided its e-scooters to Cyberabad Police which was given free of cost for first three months to use it for patrolling purpose. It has also launched a pick up and drop facility at the IIIT-Hyderabad campus to solve inter-campus commute. Now, the company plans to set up docking stations in different campuses – both corporate and institutions – across the city and is in talks with the government for the same.
So, what are the factors that differentiate a Hala vehicle from others? The e-scooters are powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities which means that it has smart sensors.
Hala Mobility founder Srikanth Reddy with IT Principal Secretary Jayesh Ranjan.
“Let’s say a user has picked up the vehicle from a particular spot and wants to drop at another spot, then our sensors makes sure that the scooter is dropped at the designated spot and if not the scooter will not get locked and the customer will be charged. All scooters are equipped with Bluetooth connectivity and GPS. The algorithm also senses the driver’s safety and efficiency while driving and we provide incentive accordingly,” says Reddy.
For the rental side of the business, the company is tying up with hotels to provide e-scooters on demand and already has four pilots on-going with OYO. For the smart charging stations, the startup is looking at having 30 per cent battery swapping system and the rest charging points at each station that it develops. To fully charge a scooter it might take two to three hours, claims Reddy.
“All the scooters are customizable and we have options of 60 km/hr, 100 km/hr and 120 km/hr models. By end of January we plan to go live for public. Our association with T-Hub has bought a whole new dimension, taking from mentoring, access to community, connecting us with corporates and government authorities,” Reddy said. Facilitated by TSIC, the company recently participated at the Dubai Expo 2021.