Sushant Kumar is the Founder and Managing Director at AMO Mobility Solutions, an e-mobility company in India creating reliable, sustainable and affordable e-mobility solutions. In his present role, he is responsible for supervising all areas of business operations. A serial entrepreneur, Sushant comes with a decade of experience across automobile, consulting, trading, and e-mobility. After completing his bachelor’s in Metallurgical Engineering and Material Science from NIT Jamshedpur, he joined Tata Motors in 2004 as a Manager – Quality Assurance. In 2008, he was the only person out of 420 people to be appointed as the youngest Global Sourcing Manager at Tata Motors.
A smart city is a high-tech integrated city or autonomous town that employs information and communication technologies (ICT) to boost operational effectiveness, transmit information to the general public, and enhance the standard of public services as well as the comfort or ease of living for its residents. In this context, transportation sector propelled by electric vehicles (EVs) has a major role to play within the society of the smart cities.
Most folks would identify EVs such as electric bikes and electric scooters as the only means of transportation but experts argue there is more to get from EVs. The aim of shifting transportation to electric mobility is obvious as it helps mitigate the challenges of climate change and global warming. In India, where pollution is a serial killer, the craze for electric mobility or electric vehicles has surged significantly. But, calling EVs mere next-gen transportation warriors is folly as the sector involves a range of players that makes the case both vast and a little complicated. Let’s understand how EVs have more things to deliver that will achieve sustainable energy as a service business model in smart cities.
Since multiple players are coming into the industry of e-bikes and e-scooters and EV infrastructure providers, EVs will soon become more integrated with the society. Within these integrated societies there is more room for other players who would also find themselves attached to the evolving smart ventures in these smart cities.
E commerce will play an important role in the economy of a smart city. But to have a sustainable life in the smart city e-com players have to ensure low carbon footprint. In doing so last mile delivery will become a challenge, to overcome this challenge shifting from fuel based mobility to electric mobility is eminent. This will not only give boost to the environmental health but also become an economical option for the demand fulfilment.
Mode of transportation to fulfil the demand are as follows:
- Electric Two-Wheelers
- Electric Three-Wheelers
- Electric Four-Wheelers
The most feasible among the above listed 3 options are two-wheelers and three-wheelers as these two options does not need separate charging infrastructure. Now keeping these options in consideration, we can further explore three areas where we can look at EV as service business model
- Delivery
Delivery in the smart cities will play a very important role, it could be grocery, apparels, food, electronics, medicines etc…so broadly we can divide this further into two categories
- Ecarts (Non-Perishable/ product with longer shelf life)
- Food
- Bike Rental
The smart cities will be a big attraction for tourism which will give home to multiple businesses and renting bikes for site scenes would be another form of business which can proliferate in these cities. Bike rental can be looked at as an economical option from employment perspective as well. Anyone can rent a bike and generate employment for oneself at a mere cost of 2 to 3 thousand per month.
- Bike Taxi
In smart cities public transport is very strong be it busses, metro line, intercity trains, airports etc… and to reach out to such points we need feeder transportation options. Bike taxies could be an easy and quick option.
EV charging can be done or given at home, but there is also room for other firms. Meanwhile, your neighbours may devise their own at-home charging system, which will eventually develop into a network and a full-fledged charging enterprise provided by a single neighbourhood. So, in broader terms, EV charging providers can be classified into the following categories –
- Individual home-based charging station
- Private/public parking cum charging stations
- On-road fast-charging stations
- Battery swapping stations
- Refuelling stations
- Electric roadbed charging solutions
Basically, all these charging solutions have now become service providers of vast magnitude providing an array of charging solutions to millions of EV owners.
A report says, “The adoption of EVs could result in significant societal changes, including the provision of transportation services, a move away from petroleum, and a reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the transport industry.”
The foreshadowing is that EVs will help you diversify the entire transportation industry by bringing about the creation of new service providers and a smart grid that is offering sustainable energy solutions to everyone, in addition to being an eco-friendly mobility system. India, which imports and consumes a lot of fossil fuels, will gain a lot from smart grids like these in cities with 100% renewable energy-powered transportation systems.