If you have travelled internationally, more specifically to the European countries, you must have seen shared bicycles that one can avail by scanning a barcode, paying the amount, reaching the destination and then leaving it at the desired location. This concept of shared mobility helps travellers explore a city with ease, without much dependency on the public transport. To make it further attractive and reach wider audience, such shared mobility brands are now offering electric two wheelers, that are much easier to operate, and green for environment. One such brand offering services in India is Yulu. If you have visited Delhi and seen blue coloured scooters outside Metro stations, those are Yulus. We recently had an interaction with Amit Gupta, Founder & CEO, Yulu Bikes to understand the concept and benefits of shared mobility.
Q.Tell us about Yulu brand and its operations
Yulu’s mission is to make urban mobility in India seamless, shareable and sustainable. In 2018, what started off as an initiative to reduce traffic congestion and pollution in Indian cities, is now redefining UMaaS – Urban Mobility as a Service in India. With a fleet of more than 10,000 electric vehicles and a customer base of over 3 million users, Yulu runs India’s largest electric mobility platform. We are currently operational in Bangalore, New Delhi, Mumbai, and Pune.
Yulu is revolutionizing the way people commute through its purpose-built battery-powered vehicles and cutting edge technologies like IoT, ML & AI. Yulu’s biggest strength is its operational model built on excellence and efficiency. Yulu has developed a “vertical stack" to run its EV fleet. From design and ownership of the assets to charging the batteries to on-ground operations, we have little dependency on external factors. Second, our model is based on technology integration to deliver a seamless customer experience using IoT, Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence. This has also assisted during the pandemic, where the customers could monitor sanitization stamps for reassurance of safety.
Q.How is Yulu pushing Mobility with self-driven vehicles?
Indian urban infrastructure is under scrutiny as there is rising consciousness about air quality, road congestion and sustainable practices. This gave impetus to Mobility 2.0, where there is a growing “anti-car sentiment" and citizens are welcoming more eco-friendly, sustainable and affordable means of transportation. Thus, began India’s journey towards electric mobility- a long-term solution to the rising demand for self driven vehicles. The country is, hence, remodelling its cities with a smart set-up to incorporate the demands of the future such as green spaces, paths ways and cycle lanes.
Yulu is a unique solution that aligns perfectly to the Modern-age 5S mobility framework:
1. Smart- Yulu is a tech based mobility experience providing convenient real time transportation options with instant and seamless execution.
2. Sustainable- Yulu electric vehicles are environment friendly and economically justifiable
3. Small- Yulu EVs are small and lightweight. Hence, these compact vehicles are not only easy-to-use for all demographics including first time riders and elderly; but also reduce traffic congestion.
4. Shared- “Shared mobility" is the fundamental of Yulu’s model. As a concept, shared mobility implies fewer vehicles on the roads and becomes more affordable for the masses.
5. Safe- Our fleet of technicians regularly check Yulu vehicles for maintenance ensuring customer safety. And during the pandemic, solo ridership became one of the safest modes of transportation. Infact, Yulu vehicles have only 3 touch points that are sanitized regularly by our team of technicians.
Tell us about the specification of the bikes
“Yulu Miracle" is a unique battery operated, 2 wheeler designed for urban traffic conditions, with zero carbon footprint. Following are the feature wise description.
1. Super Easy to use – Miracles’ unisex frame is uniquely designed and custom built for Indian road conditions. Our lightweight vehicle has almost “Zero Lateral Offset" and lower Center-of-Gravity, which provides great stability and better handling maneuverability
2. Seat – Ergonomically well-designed seat for a comfortable solo ride. Our smart seat is enabled with one tap sensor to indicate the state of the battery on the handle display
3. Footboard – Miracle footboard is specially designed to provide more legroom thereby providing a comfortable ride. The wide footboard along with the battery housing provides a perfect balance to Miracle
4. Smart Sensors – Yulu vehicles are installed with several smart sensors which help us with not only tracking the location of the vehicles but also predictive maintenance, reducing theft and vandalism by alerting the central control room.
5. Headlight – Miracle comes with a smart LED headlight for good visibility. The weatherproof light has built-in LDR for automatic light control based on the ambient light conditions. Headlight complies with the regulatory requirement of Automatic Headlight On (AHO) for two-wheelers
6. Tyre – Heavy-duty 100% solid rubber tire with V-style street tread design. Our tires are solid puncture proof perfect for sharing.
Q.How do you ensure the safety of vehicles?
Safety of vehicles and customers is our priority and we have built our entire operating model keeping this in mind. Yulu has a 99.4% theft-free record because of the regular checks and technology-backed tracking. Our on-ground operations team comprises a number of portfolios including technicians and specialists for on-ground maintenance like minor wear and tear along with swapping batteries for the seamless service. We also have a dedicated team responsible for delivering faulty vehicles to the warehouse where specialised personnel repair the same. Another dedicated team of Yulu Pilots relocates them from low demand to higher demand docking stations to get higher yield.
Q.How is Yulu capturing the shared-mobility market?
With growing internet access, and changing mindset towards access to assets, over ownership, there is a steady boom in the shared economy. The shared economy started as a trend but it continues to grow and establish itself as a lifestyle. Its growing popularity is based on the 3 As of modern mobility – Affordability, Accessibility and Availability of services for the good of all.
Yulu enjoys a first mover advantage as the only e-shared mobility solution in India. Our collaborations with Cities, Citizens and Corporates has provided us the dexterity to set up ‘Yulu Zones’ across the length and breadth of various cities and provide easy access to this shared mode of mobility. We strategically place Yulu Zones at major tech parks, co-working zones and residential regions for easy access to customers. As a result, Yulu has enjoyed year on year growth, and clocked 2.6x growth between March 2020 and April 2021 during the pandemic where every other mode of transportation has seen a massive drop in their usage numbers.
Q.What Yulu has achieved so far and what plans ahead?
We are proud to have partnered with civic bodies such as Bengaluru Municipal Corporation and Pune Municipal Corporation to bring services to the customers. With our app being used by 1.5 million citizens who have travelled approximately around 60 million kms on Yulu, we have been able to collectively save almost 6200 metric tonnes of carbon emission by choosing a sustainable means of commuting.
We see a huge demand for this model in India, and are working closely with policy advisors to make Indian cities more electric-vehicle friendly. The current focus is to address the supply constraints and increase our fleet size to 2 lakh shared electric vehicles over the next two years.
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