In the micromobility industry, the demand for connectivity is continuing to grow fast. And the business models for managing those e-vehicles vary. ‘Last mile delivery’, ‘corporate fleet’, ‘free-floating sharing network’, and ‘subscription bikes’ are just a few keywords to mention, regarding different fleet management segments. 

A current snapshot of different business models in fleet management

Free-floating sharing network (like Bird, Tuul, Tier, etc) is probably best known, as this is the model that really brought e-scooters to the masses. This model is offering an e-vehicle sharing service as an alternative way of urban commuting, at a time where public transport works against social distancing. 

But there are other ways of making a connected e-vehicle fleet work in your favor. For example, Movelo offers different versions of e-bikes as a ‘corporate-sharing’ model, where employees can rent a bike for their commute and time off. Swapfiets is doing Netflix for bikes: for a monthly fee, you will always have a fully functional bike at your disposal. On the other hand, these sorts of solutions are also popping up at new real-estate developments, where a fleet of shared bikes comes along with a purchase of a flat (the so-called “residential sharing model”). The list of such different examples could go on. 

No matter what kind of business model you decide for your business, there are still additional elements to consider, before launching your fleet. Are you going to opt-in for an off-the-shelf vehicle (that everyone is deploying); partner with a vehicle OEM for a proprietary design or go as far as designing a vehicle in-house? As the market is maturing and more and more players launch their fleets, you might want to ask yourself, what are the things that make you unique and help you stick out from the bunch?

Here are some ideas to differentiate

1. Build and develop your own electric vehicles

Regarding e-scooters, at first, everyone had Ninebot products, and now Okai or Ninebot have become household names. There are a lot of examples of cities with multiple fleets running on the same hardware. So when you have 4 e-scooters of the same make next to each other, how can you be sure that yours is the one going to be picked?

Having the experience and know-how in vehicle manufacturing can help you find the right partners for operating your fleet. For example, Comodule has offered IoT & connectivity solutions to fleet operators and OEM’s since 2014. Now, seeing the increasing need for multimodality and different types of sharing vehicles, we have launched two electric micromobility vehicles of our own–Co-Cycle and Co-Scooter. (We are just starting to open them up for our partners. As the design & manufacturing is inside the company in Europe, we can accommodate tailoring requests more agile than any Asian counterpart.)

2. Build an outstanding brand

What is your focus? Do you want to be a rebel, like CAKE ride, creating e-motorbikes for both cross country and urban terrains? Or emphasize sustainability, security, and comfort? Make sure that your vehicles are as high quality as your content though, as the more and more conscious end-user will be able to tell the difference. To continuously improve user experience, it’s important to support your connection through a user-friendly app. Notify your users about new updates, let them know about ongoing campaigns, etc.

Last spring, Comodule launched a Co-Scooter’s test fleet called Tuul in our hometown Tallinn, Estonia. Our aim was to put the scooters through a series of stress-tests (e.g. thick snow and low temperatures that we have outside currently), before delivering them to any external partner. Furthermore, doing the operations ourselves, gave us a better understanding of the challenges our clients face when doing their everyday operations and delivering services to their riders.

Thanks to this first-hand-experience, we believe we can now offer even better service to our customers.  “We have validated our hypothesis and are happy with the results: Yes, the scooter lasts! Yes, it is extremely good to drive, even during winter! Yes, there is no point in stealing it! Yes, it even works after being 4 weeks in the river; and yes, people prefer it over the competition! “ says Kristjan Maruste, CEO of Comodule, who’s also leading the internal vehicles development team.

3.“Black box” vs a responsible external IoT connectivity partner

When it comes to IoT connectivity, the value offer of companies active in this field ranges from “black box” (customer buys hardware only and is responsible for keeping it functional) to end-to-end service at the other end of the spectrum. At Comodule we have always seen the IoT as a system critical part of any fleet operations because when the connectivity setup isn’t reliable, this reflects in the whole service quality, low user satisfaction, and unavailability of the service. Therefore, Comodule offers what we call a vertically integrated IoT solution which means we take care of sim management, backend & middleware management, troubleshooting tools, vehicle integrations, entire system uptime & global availability. Handing over the responsibility for IoT operations to an external partner allows for the customer to focus on their core business and have one worry less.  

4. Use standardized IoT hardware to get a head start

As the direction of connected mobility moves between various fields, it demands more off-the-shelf solutions from IoT providers, as the businesses keep growing and time to market is of the essence. 

In the past couple of years, Comodule has had Plug’n’Play solutions available for the well-known e-scooter brands out there and we have supplied tens of thousands of those vehicles. Whereas with e-bikes, a certain level of engineering has always been foreseen to integrate a product. Now, with introducing the Bonnie&Clyde IoT module, fleet owners will have the privilege to design a bike around a widely spread drivetrain such as Bosch or Brose, and not worry about the integration effort, as compatibility with the drivetrain is already there on a high level.

And while the standardized IoT is doing some heavy lifting, you can maximize your returns with some operational hacks. When looking for the perfect IoT fit for your vehicles, we recommend keeping in mind the Over The Air (OTA) updates function, to constantly improve customer experience and sufficiently maintain your own fleet. Depending on specific drivetrain setup, Comodule is able to push firmware updates (eg bug fixes, new features, settings changes) to through the IoT module to the main controller, battery BMS, display, and IoT itself of course as well. So the vehicles can remain in customers’ hands at all times. 

Haven’t figured out the game plan quite yet?

To learn more about connected e-vehicles or the IoT modules that Comodule offers, be sure to check out our website. Of course, for a more personalized overview, you can always contact rivo@comodule.com who can give you an in-depth prospect.