Rapido Sets The Ball Rolling On Fully Electrifying Its Delhi Bike Taxi Fleet By Next Year

Ride hailing unicorn Rapido, which is also navigating options to venture into the quick commerce turf as competition heats up, is reportedly pulling out all stops to fully electrify its bike taxi fleet in Delhi by next year.

As per Moneycontrol’s report, citing the startup’s founder and CEO Arvind Sanka, betting on this move to fully go electric, Rapido has partnered with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and fleet operators like Zypp Electric and Gogoro.

Inc42 has reached out to Rapido for comments on the development. The story will be updated based on the response.

The move aligns with the Delhi government’s goal to electrify all bike taxis by 2030 owing to the huge pollution problem. In November last year, the state government initiated a phase-wise transition of cab operators’ fleets to electric vehicles.

Additionally, the Delhi government came up with the scheme EV Policy 2.0 to allow bike-taxi aggregators to run their operations in Delhi, provided they are electrical. 

Currently, the scheme is awaiting lieutenant governor VK Saxena’s final clearance.

Yesterday,(September 16), Rapido’s counterpart Ola Cabs announced the relaunch of its bike-taxi service in Bengaluru using only electric scooters.

It is pertinent to note that major ride-hailing players have been doubling down on the electrification of their fleets in recent times. 

For instance, in January, Ola announced the deployment of 10,000 electric two-wheelers in Bengaluru, Delhi, and Hyderabad in the next two months. It also purchased 8,000 E2Ws from Ola Electric for the pilot, which kicked off in Bengaluru in September 2023. 

In June, Uber as part of the launch of Uber Green said that it will add 25,000 electric cars on its platform in partnership with fleet providers like Lithium, Everest and Moove. Besides, it will roll out 10,000 electric two-wheelers in Delhi by 2024 along with Zypp Electric, another EV start-up.

Another player, BluSmart aims to have 10,000 electric vehicles by the end of this year. It has been able to grow its fleet of E4Ws in a short span from 2,000 cars in Q3 FY23 to close to 6,000 in Q3 FY24, its cofounder Anmol Singh Jaggi told Inc42 in January. 

This comes at the heart of Rapido undergoing several changes towards offering diversification and expansion lately. 

Earlier this month Rapido joined the coveted unicorn club by raising $200 Mn (INR 1,660 Cr) in a Series E funding round led by existing investor WestBridge Capital, valuing the startup at $1.1 Bn. 

Founded in 2015 by Rishikesh SR, Pavan Guntupalli, and Aravind Sanka, the startup primarily operates in the bike taxi and auto transportation segments. In December last year, it also launched cab services in some cities. In addition, it also offers peer-to-peer delivery services via Rapido Local. 

On the financial front, Rapido’s net loss widened over 50% to INR 674.5 Cr in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23) from INR 439 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Operating revenue zoomed to INR 443 Cr from INR 144.8 Cr in FY22.