Bengaluru: Bounce to Train One Lakh Women to Ride EV Scooters

Bengaluru: Over the next two years, Bounce, a scooter rental company based in Bengaluru, will train at least 100,000 women in Indian cities and villages to drive electric two-wheelers. The bike-sharing company hopes that the project will empower women who want to do freelance work while also increasing the usability of its rental vehicle fleet, which presently covers just around 40 kilometres or four hours each day.

Vivekananda Hallekere, CEO and co-founder of Bounce, said the firm has already started training a few hundred women in Bengaluru and would extend to other cities in the coming months.

"We have started this initiative to train women who like to pursue a part-time job for a few hours a day. We will also assist them in getting their driving licences and ensure that they get a suitable jobs, either as bike taxi drivers or as gig workers," he told local media.

The firm will give free training, but women who subsequently join Bounce for a job will be charged Rs 3-4 per kilometre, according to the company's business strategy. Every month, the company intends to train roughly 6,000 women.

Bounce has set up 200 battery switching stations at 200 mom-and-pop businesses around Bengaluru, allowing women riders to easily swap charged batteries at any of these locations, according to Hallekere.

The two-wheeler rental company hopes to boost the usefulness of its EV fleet by 60 to 100 kilometres per vehicle per day by getting women riders on board.

"With unit economy playing a crucial role in our business model, we want e-scooters to run for longer hours. We will encourage women and college going students to use the platform and earn without really having to invest on buying a vehicle," he said.

The firm is in discussions with the Karnataka government to obtain a large plot of land on which to train interested women, as well as a system to integrate licence issuance shortly after the training.

Bounce has begun replacing its fleet of gasoline-powered two-wheelers with electric scooters. Hallekere has announced a partnership with Chara to design motors for a new fleet of in-house electric vehicles.