India's EverSource acquires local EV fleet operator

Local media have estimated the deal is worth around USD 50m. It facilitates exits for Lightrock India and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which reportedly provided a USD 16.9m Series A round in 2018. The company was said to be valued at about USD 39m the following year.

EverSource is investing via the Green Growth Equity Fund (GGEF), which was described as one of the largest single-country climate funds in the developing world when it closed above-target on USD 741m in January. It focuses on energy decarbonisation and resource efficiency.

EverSource was set up as a joint venture between Lightsource BP, a renewable power developer backed by BP, and Everstone Capital, an India-focused GP based in Singapore, specifically to manage GGEF. It has more than USD 6bn in assets under management.

Lithium claims to be the largest operator of EVs outside of China, providing 24-hour services to more than 50 clients, including Uber, in over 15 cities nationwide. The approximately 2,000-vehicle fleet is 100% electric and 100% owned by the company. It has delivered more than 180m electric miles since inception in 2014.

The company’s infrastructure includes more than 600 charging stations and a technology stack featuring systems for fleet management and vehicle connectivity systems. There is also a demand management platform said to improve productivity by 2x, reduce the carbon footprint by up to 100%, and bring down the transportation costs by up to 40%.

Lithium will be EverSource’s core platform for providing B2B e-mobility services across passenger and freight segments. The fresh capital will be used to build out technology while expanding charging infrastructure and fleet size. The aim is to roll out more than 10,000 EVs in the next 24 months. Longer-term plans include international expansions.

“We also foresee a huge synergistic benefit with our other platform, GreenCell Mobility, regarding co-development of new application-specific electric vehicles, rolling out and cross utilisation of charging and energy infrastructure, sharing of best practices and learnings between two leading electric fleet owner-operators in India,” EverSource CEO Dhanpal Jhaveri said in a statement.

EverSource has described its strategy as in line with the pledges India made at the UN’s recently concluded COP26 climate conference and well-positioned in terms of government clean infrastructure projects and pollution reduction in the Ganges river. India was criticised at COP26 for preferring the term “phase down” over “phase out” in reference to unabated coal use.

India’s broader EV investment opportunity is seen as smaller than that of China but more attractive in terms of shared mobility, mobility-as-a-service, micro-mobility, and public transport versus private-use cars. Urban and high-repeat routes are estimated to represent up to 60% of all transportation in the country, making fleet operation and logistics the most prospective categories.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• South Asia
• Cleantech
• Infrastructure
• Buyouts
• Trade sale
• India
• Everstone Capital
• LGT Lightstone Aspada
• IFC
• Transportation
• energy
• automobiles