By admin
Beyond just being synonymous with affordable micro-mobility, Let’s driEV harbors a larger ambition: alleviating a significant challenge faced by students. The issue of commuting weighs heavily on students, particularly those relocating to new cities for academic pursuits. Finding means to navigate the city, procure necessities, and explore the surroundings becomes a daunting task, often revolving around borrowing a friend’s bike.
Our Co-Founder, Ankur B Patel, isn’t tackling a distant problem. Having been a student at XIMB, he intimately understands the larger problem. Ankur, like many, relied on a second-hand bike bought for 8,000 rupees to navigate campus life—a lifeline shared among friends. The friend who has a bike is always the popular one because you know why! Despite the allure of university life, nobody talks about the struggle of securing transportation for intra-campus commutes or short outings is rarely discussed.
Ankur wanted to solve this puzzle teaming up with the co-founders, Santwana Sagnika, Anirban Mohanty, and Priyadarshini Pradhan we built a custom solution, proving that even small startups could create meaningful change, thus creating the foundation of Let’s driEV. Recognizing the limitations of public transport and the expense of relying on cabs during college days, Let’s driEV sought to afford students the liberty they crave. Moreover, not every student can afford a bike, presenting an untapped market for addressing a profound issue. Commuting hurdles often inhibit students from realizing their full potential—hindering them from acquiring new skills, attending webinars, or exploring the city.
Thus, Let’s driEV emerged with a singular mission: to render urban commuting accessible, economical, and sustainable for all, starting with the community we know best—students. We inaugurated a bike-sharing service on campuses, offering electric bikes for rent at nominal rates. This afforded students the freedom to traverse anywhere, anytime, hassle-free, while also championing environmental conservation through clean energy usage. The response was overwhelming. Within three days of launching our MVP for trials, 700 students had signed up for our service, despite only possessing three bikes at the time and it was a clear sign showing that the team was in the right path.
We realized that owning a vehicle is not necessary to have freedom and one can enjoy the same freedom and even more of it with a sharing vehicle with zero commitements. Today, we have over 1,000 electric vehicles on different campuses, actively reshaping the transportation landscape and making a difference. However, our journey is far from over. Our vision extends beyond mere accessibility to making personal vehicle ownership obsolete, substituting it with a service that’s accessible, affordable, and environmentally friendly for all.
We started improving from our first mock test and till today, we are working towards making our customer experience better by all means. First challenge that we faced was that a majority of our customers spoke different mother tongue and our whole team was from Odisha. It was a wake up call for us to buckle up and bridge the communication gap to solve our customer problems by hiring team members who could speak other languages to also making onboarding videos to communicate with the customers. We also developed training courses and mock sessions to equip our team with the skills to explain the scooter usage and maintenance tips to the customers.
Early challenges, such as damage to public bike-sharing platforms, prompted innovative solutions. We incentivized responsible user behavior and implemented fairer pricing structures to promote smooth and efficient rides, mitigating losses for the company.
Let’s driEV is a testament to adaptability and growth, striving each day to foster sustainable commuting solutions for all.
