Urban mobility is undergoing a transformation, and Yulu is at the forefront with its shared electric vehicles. In an insightful conversation, Naveen Dachuri, Co-Founder & CTO, Yulu, discusses the company’s tech-driven approach to solving challenges in sustainable mobility. He shares how Yulu is addressing issues like range anxiety, leveraging AI for fleet management, and focusing on last-mile delivery, all while shaping the future of electric mobility in India. Naveen also gives a glimpse into Yulu’s evolution and its vision for transforming city transportation.
Yulu has been at the forefront of transforming urban mobility in India with its shared electric vehicles. As the CTO, can you give us an overview of Yulu’s technology-driven approach and how it is shaping the future of sustainable mobility?
At Yulu, our goal has always been to drive shared mobility, and initially, this involved dock-based systems that required a significant infrastructure investment. However, this approach wasn’t sustainable for scaling due to high costs. To address this, we leveraged telemetry, which provided us real-time vehicle data without needing physical docks. This allowed us to deploy more vehicles, making them more accessible and affordable.
When we started, we operated a “drop anywhere” model, but we quickly realised it created parking issues. We then transitioned to a more structured system, collaborating with the government to designate parking spots while ensuring accessibility. Initially, our focus was on building infrastructure and purpose-built vehicles, as off-the-shelf options didn’t suit our needs. We also enhanced the user experience through our app.
COVID was a turning point when our revenue dropped to zero. We shifted our focus to e-commerce, providing our fleet for last-mile logistics. This required innovation as it was different from people mobility. On the tech side, we focused on making our vehicles smart and safe, and optimising operations through vehicle rebalancing and proactive maintenance to reduce costs. Over time, technology has been crucial in increasing uptime and lowering operational expenses, shaping our journey in sustainable mobility.
Range anxiety is a common concern for EV users. Do you have systems in place to ensure vehicles remain within a specific area for drop-off at designated points?
Let me break this down into two parts. First, we address the range anxiety of customers using our vehicles. In personal mobility, where people use the vehicle for short commutes—20 minutes, 30 minutes, or up to an hour—we had field executives monitor the battery levels. If the charge dropped below a certain threshold, they would visit the vehicle to recharge it. This model worked because we could charge customers for this service, as their paying capacity was higher compared to last-mile delivery users.
For last-mile delivery, where the vehicle is used for longer periods, we implemented battery swap locations. This removes the range anxiety by allowing delivery personnel to swap batteries at designated points.
The second key aspect is creating network density, especially for quick commerce and food delivery. These companies have already geofenced their service areas, and we followed suit by establishing a dense network of charging stations within those areas. This way, our customers can continue working without worrying about range limitations.
Lastly, to prevent vehicles from leaving specific regions, we’ve developed features within our product. We can warn users if they are approaching a restricted area, and if necessary, we have the ability to immobilise the vehicle. This is how we address the issue of geofencing and vehicle control.
This model, already successful in many global cities, involves users picking up bikes, scanning a code, and dropping them off at designated points. Now, do your model has anything different than it?
The main difference lies in the economics and user preferences between Western countries and India. In Western markets, the revenue per vehicle and labor costs are high, so they use a gig economy model where customers are incentivised to charge or swap batteries themselves. However, in India, this model doesn’t work due to different unit economics. Hiring personnel to change batteries is cheaper than incentivising customers.
Another key difference is the vehicle type. In Western markets, people are comfortable riding standing scooters from childhood, so they use smaller vehicles for shared mobility. But in India and South Asia, people prefer sitting vehicles, like three-wheelers or seated scooters. We tried introducing standing kick scooters, but users found them uncomfortable, and the infrastructure isn’t suited for them. So, a sitting position vehicle makes more sense here, and expecting customers to carry these vehicles for charging or battery replacement isn’t practical.
Yulu has evolved from a shared e-bike service to launching personal mobility options like Wynn. What technological advancements have enabled this transition, and how do you see the product portfolio evolving?
We wanted to test the market and see if our customers, especially in last-mile delivery, would eventually prefer owning a vehicle. We always thought there might be a need for a personal vehicle option, so we decided to create something similar in maintenance to our shared e-bikes but with a different look and feel, allowing users to own it. We also noticed that many households needed a low-speed vehicle for daily errands. This led to the introduction of Wynn. We designed it to be keyless, smart, and shareable among family members or colleagues, making it easy to use. However, starting a new business line can be a distraction, so we decided to focus back on our core business of goods and people mobility for now. But, in the future, we will definitely revisit the idea of personal mobility.
How many cities in India is this currently operational in?
In terms of cities, Yulu operates in four metro areas: Delhi, Mumbai, Bangaluru, and Hyderabad. Delhi could be seen as multiple cities, but we count it as one. Besides these, we have franchise operations in six additional cities, the biggest being Kolkata.
The franchise model works well because this business is highly localised. It’s best if local partners, who understand the area and are passionate about solving similar problems, run the service. They own the vehicles but use our platform for operations.
As for battery swapping, this is handled through our joint venture with Yuma Energy. Initially, Yulu managed everything, but we decided to split the business into two companies to scale faster. Both sides, charging infrastructure and vehicles, are capital-intensive, and separating them has allowed us to grow more efficiently. Our partnership with Magna, the third-largest auto parts supplier, helped form Yuma, a combined entity of Yulu and Magna, which has accelerated our growth.
Do you see EV infrastructure as a challenge in the cities where you’re currently operating?
It depends mostly on the infrastructure for EVs. I don’t think it’s a significant challenge. Sometimes we make tactical decisions, but strategically, we’ve been clear from the beginning. We knew that if a network of EV infrastructure isn’t created and there isn’t enough demand, it won’t work. Yulu is generating the demand, which helps Yuma create the infrastructure needed for a dense network. It’s a symbiotic relationship. Yuma also has the potential to open this network to other OEMs that want similar services.
Yulu generates a massive amount of ride data. How are you leveraging AI and analytics to optimise fleet management, improve rider experience, and enhance operational efficiency?
We use AI extensively in many areas. Starting with data collection, we gather crucial information about our vehicles, such as their health, movement, and usage patterns. This data serves multiple purposes. One of the primary goals is to reduce operational costs and increase vehicle uptime. We’ve built models to predict when a vehicle may need repair or maintenance, allowing us to act proactively. Another model helps optimise vehicle relocation to improve efficiency, either for increasing utilisation or for repairs.
On the customer side, especially for goods mobility, we use AI to ensure they’re getting value for their money. Our models help determine the optimal pricing, balancing customer satisfaction and business growth. We also guide customers on when and where to go for battery swaps, ensuring they’re directed to charging stations with adequate supply. This helps maintain 100% customer satisfaction with the battery swap process.
Lastly, we collaborate with government agencies to ensure compliance with traffic regulations. We’re working on warning riders if they’re violating traffic rules, with potential penalties from either authorities or Yulu. While we’re still improving this aspect, it’s a key focus area for us.
Would you say the majority of the traction is on the goods or business segment rather than the consumer side?
At the moment, our focus is primarily on the goods segment. Before COVID, the growth was slow, with many relying on the e-commerce side. But COVID changed everything. Initially, people were forced into new habits, like online shopping. Over time, they developed trust, realising they could get good products delivered. As the pandemic continued, this behaviour became habitual, which is what businesses strive for—creating customer stickiness.
COVID significantly boosted quick commerce. People got used to fast deliveries and started demanding it, much like asking for something as casually as “Mummy, get me tea.” With more dark stores opening daily, the demand for delivery services has skyrocketed, creating employment. Seeing this, we shifted our focus and began deploying more vehicles for goods mobility.
What challenges or operational backlogs do you still face, and how do you think technology could help address them?
It’s not exactly a backlog, but more of an ongoing challenge. As I mentioned, to make this business more viable and profitable, the key focus is on two things: first, extending the life of the vehicle, and second, speeding up repair and maintenance activities to increase vehicle utilisation and uptime.
We constantly push ourselves to improve the lifespan of assets. For instance, if the current life of a vehicle is three years, we aim to extend it to three and a half or four years. This involves figuring out what parts or product improvements can help us achieve that. This is more complex for our type of vehicles compared to commercial vehicles. In commercial vehicles, there might be one or two drivers, whereas in our case, multiple riders with varying usage patterns use the same vehicle. These differences in usage can impact the life of mechanical components, leading to more wear and tear.
A big challenge is predicting issues before they happen, which is where technology comes in. By using data from previous repairs and identifying patterns, we can guide our operations to act on vehicles before components fail. This also helps us address not just immediate issues, but other potential problems, which in turn reduces repair time and increases vehicle uptime.