EMobility+ had an exclusive conversation with Girish Nagpal – CEO & Co-founder, MetroRide where he spoke about the role being played by MetroRide in the green transport movement. He also gave his views on challenges being faced by the fleet industry at present, evolving technology innovations, and the importance of the entire industry working together to drive the green revolution.
How do you see the future of mobility or commute service in India both from the public & private users’ perspectives?
The way our urban cities are growing in population & pollution we are putting too much strain on the environment as well as infrastructure. The basic necessity of clean air to breathe in has already become a huge challenge in many cities. The only sustainable solution to this is the use of public transport and to shift to cleaner modes of transport. We believe Private players should focus on enabling public transport by making it more accessible. We at MetroRide are making public transport seamless and accessible by solving the first & last mile issue.
How you will define Metroride? How is it playing its part in the green transport movement?
MetroRide is an electric mobility platform with a mission to make daily commute Affordable, Punctual, and Sustainable. We make public transport accessible by solving the first & last mile connectivity issue & make customers’ end-to-end journeys seamless. We scale using Shared-mobility, Electric Vehicles, and Artificial Intelligence. Not only do we reduce the Carbon footprint from the first & last miles but also reduce congestion and pollution by promoting the ridership of cleaner public transport.
In your opinion what are the key challenges the fleet industry is facing with regards to adopting EVs in their services? How these can be overcome?
Like any new product or initiative, even EVs have to go through this life cycle where initially there is an adoption vs infrastructure readiness conundrum. With so many options for fleet owners like swap or fixed, ownership or lease, etc, one needs to take a strategic call. These are early days so what is the best option for a given use case in the long term can only be assumed. With so much R&D and dynamism in the sector, we need to be open to change and keep trying till things settle down. The early adopters always have to take that risk which does offer the benefits of having the first-mover advantage.
How evolving technology innovations in the sector are helping customers deliver relevant business outcomes? How technology gives you an edge over other players.
Technology creates the biggest differentiation when it comes to delivering value at scale, solving day-to-day problems, or even replicating a solution in different markets. We are an AI-enabled platform and have always tried to use technology as the backbone of each of our processes. Right from scheduling our vehicles, and assignment of drivers to identifying & optimizing routes, our technology stack comes in very handy. That’s the reason we don’t need battalions of people to run our show in different geographies & makes us leaner and scalable. We also make customers’ journeys seamless by offering multi-modal commute through our tie-ups with transport agencies like Metro, suburban trains, etc.
With an increasing inclination towards electric mobility, do you feel that we are on the right path with infrastructural development? How you are dealing presently with your charging infrastructure requirements?
We surely are in times where mass adoption of electric mobility is not a question of “whether” but “when”. The private and public forces are working in tandem to ensure that our infrastructure is ready. The early adopters are incentivized through various subsidies and PLI schemes. We believe EV adoption should be our single point agenda for the whole industry as of now irrespective of we being competition. We all need to collaborate rather than compete as there will be enough pie for everyone to grab once we make the market grow in the next few years. MetroRide also has been following this philosophy and has created a robust ecosystem working closely with Swap station partners, Charging partners, transit agencies as well as OEMs. This gives us a good launchpad to work together with various stakeholders with a common goal.