Will PEDL play Zoomcar’s balance wheel?

The self-drive company decided to rent cycles. In a world where copying China is the way to go, this variation may just be a step too far

There are two huge cycle sharing companies in China—Ofo and Mobike—both valued at over $1 billion

There are a few important points of difference that stand out between the US, China and India—infrastructure, accidents, demand, and pollution

From 2012 to 2016, the production of cycles grew from 12.2 million to just 15 million

Chinese unicorn, Ofo, is set to enter India in 2018, and for the first time, Zoomcar will battle a unicorn with seemingly unlimited money

Last week, a story flashed on ETtech: Zoomcar to launch bicycle-sharing business in Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata. It was greeted with a collective shrug and went almost unnoticed.

It had all the tropes of a good PR spin. The co-founder and CEO of Zoomcar, Greg Moran, was quoted in the article as saying that the company has deployed 500 cycles right now and will expand it to 10,000 within a year. All of the 27 cities where the self-drive car rental company has hubs would have these cycles soon.

AUTHOR

Patanjali Pahwa

Patanjali has spent over seven years in journalism. He last worked at Business Standard as Principal Correspondent, where he wrote on startups, e-commerce companies and venture capital. He has worked at an array of institutions, which include Forbes India, Caravan and Outlook Business. He is a Mumbaikar, born and brought up. Patanjali did his BSc in IT from Mumbai University and then got his journalism degree from IIJNM in Bangalore. He is enamoured by Ernest Hemingway and Tom Waits and may try to sneak in references to them in his stories.

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