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Powering a new drive

By Mohit Manghani | November 27, 2019

Retail4Growth met up with Deepti Koganti, Director & Co-founder at Charjet, to know more about how the company leverages the charging points as retail touch points, its brand presence in the EV space, factors that will drive the uptake of EV vehicles and more.

Retail has always been a key touch point for brands across categories, a crucial point to establish better connect with the customers and redefine brand positioning. But what is particularly interesting today is the emergence of newer categories across segments, brands who are not in the business of selling a product, but are in the business of selling a service, an idea or who facilitate newer services. What is equally interesting is the evolving new possibilities with the retail space and the customer touchpoints.  Charjet is a company founded with a vision to deliver smart, durable and energy efficient Electric Vehicle (EV) charging solutions, driven by the need for proper charging infrastructure. After all, the Government has announced a slew of tax cuts and benefits on EVs, and this means a growing need for multiple infrastructure solutions that help EVs. Charjet provides multi-platform infrastructure solutions catering to present and future e-automotive markets.  Retail4Growth met up with Deepti Koganti, Director & Co-founder at Charjet, to know more about how the company leverages the charging points as retail touch points, its brand presence in the EV space, factors that will drive the uptake of EV vehicles and more

What led to the development and launch of Charjet? What were the key market drivers?

The idea for this business was born when the 3 (founders) of us were on a motorcycle trip in the Himalayas. One evening, we had an early halt at a picturesque place called Chandratal. During the Bonfire evening there, one of our discussions revolved around the rise of pollution levels and how the onset of Electric Vehicles (EV’s) will be one of the resolutions.  Then we went on to discuss the fact that the adoption rate of EV’s was not as high as needed, due to the lack of infrastructure.  The idea of Charjet was conceived during that discussion. The journey from ideation to company formation, solving the problems in charging stations infrastructure, has been amazing filled with new learnings. This experience will be a huge advantage and quintessential in ensuring that we become the largest network pan India by 2020.

Can you explain more about your EV charging stations? Do you plan to explore any retail touchpoints/experiential centers for Charjet?

Charjet is the first of its kind company in India to offer a franchise model for Electric Vehicles charging stations. The company offers franchise in Franchise owned Company operated (FOCO) model with a breakeven time of 24-36 months. The FOCO model ensures that the customers, as well as the franchisees, have a win-win situation. Under this concept, an investor will participate in minimal business activity, while still being in the know-how of what is happening at the station. Charjet will take care of the key activities from installation to service backup, annual maintenance, network operations, staff training as well as the day-to-day operations of the franchise.

Charjet offers three franchise models which include:

1.     Gold model: This requires an investment of Rs.8 lakhs and around 200 sq. feet area.

2.     Subsidy model: This requires an investment of Rs.35 Lakhs and around 1,000 sq. feet area

3.     Platinum model: This requires an investment of Rs.60 lakhs and around 1,500 sq. feet area.  

The company has started with six outlets in Hyderabad and will target cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Pune as well as tier 2 cities. The company plans to be the largest charging station network in India by 2020 with around 2,000+ charging stations that are located within a distance range of 2-3 kms to ensure better customer access.

How many charging points/stations have been covered till date?

We have 6 stations in Telangana, and 200 stations in the process of installation across south India

 

Read the full interview in November 2019 Edition of Point-of-Purchase Magazine.

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