Blusmart raises capital for India charging rollout

Indian EV ride-hailing firm Blusmart has received a $25mn investment from Swiss asset manager Responsability to expand its EV charging infrastructure across India.

Blusmart currently operates the EV ecosystem in the country, with 6,000 EVs and 4,000 EV chargers across 35 charging locations, mostly in Delhi and Bangalore. 

“We will continue our mission to rapidly scale our iconic 100pc EV ride-hailing service and build large EV charging infrastructure for a better, cleaner and a more sustainable future,” says Blusmart co-founder Anmol Singh Jaggi.

Blusmart raised $24mn in equity investment in December last year. It has also secured a further $200mn in financing from development financial institutions (DFIs).

Growing market

India’s EV market is growing fast and could gain more than a 40pc market share of road transport by 2030, according to a recent study by consultancy Bain. 

The growth is largely driven by strong adoption in both two-wheeler and three-wheeler categories, which form the majority of EV sales today. 

India’s four-wheeler EV market has grown more steadily at c.2pc compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2018 and 2023. Penetration has been constrained by limited choices of EV models, high upfront costs compared to ICE models, and an inadequate charging ecosystem.

Extensive OEM-led distribution networks and better charging infrastructure will be key to scaling these vehicles in India, according to the report. Automakers including Vietnam's Vinfast and California's Fisker are eyeing expansion into the Indian market, with the former announcing a battery manufacturing facility in the in the southern coastal city of Thoothukudi.

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"EV ecosystem players need to significantly grow charging infrastructure to alleviate range anxiety among customers. This will require meticulous planning for charging networks, including heuristics to allocate fast vs. slow charging locations within each micro-market," says the Bain report.

The India EV market experienced an uptick in investment in the past two years, with $1.5-2bn of capital raised in each of 2021 and 2022 — a sharp increase from earlier years which saw less than $0.5bn of investment, the report notes.