Transforming garages into EV-ready hubs

SpareIt - an automotive aftermarket platform that connects neighbourhood garages with distributors and manufacturers to help them source spares - is turning their partner garages ‘EV-ready’ to keep up with the electric vehicle (EV) transition in the country.

In operation since July 2020, SpareIt currently has a network of 6,000 garages across six cities – including Bengaluru, Hubbali, Mysuru, Delhi-NCR. “While we managed to bring about 2,000 garages on-board until March 2021, after the second wave we have seen massive growth,” said Romi Chugh, co-founder of SpareIt.

In the last month alone, SpareIt has turned 50 garages, in Bangalore and Delhi, EV-ready. Contributing to the EV sector in the country, the company has tied up with original equipment manufacturers (OEM) to turn some of their partner garages into EV service hubs. As part of this move, the OEMs in the electrical two-wheeler and three-wheeler segment train SpareIt’s partner technicians and equip them to service EVs.

“We are looking to skill around 5,000 technicians across the country EV-ready by September 2022. EV spares will also be made available through the SpareIt platform at these EV service hubs,” said Prashant Kamdar, co-founder of SpareIt.

To ease the stress on the limited EV charging infrastructure in the country, SpareIt has tied up with some charging infrastructure partners to set up charging stations at some of their garages.

“We have already commissioned 100 of these charging stations at SpareIt garages across Bengaluru as part of phase 1. We are looking to commission 1,000 more by March 2022,” said Kamdar. Using SpareIt’s app, EV vehicle owners can spot the nearest EV servicing hub and charging station, Kamdar added.

“Currently at 6,000, we plan to expand our network to 50,000 garages in the next 12 months across as many as 12-13 cities including Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad Chennai and Surat, and also Kerala at large – since we have a lot of partners in the state from the EV perspective,” said Chugh.

Although the primary customers are the garages, some modules on SpareIt’s app are available for vehicle fleet owners to locate nearest garages, EV servicing hubs and charging stations.

“In due course, we intend to turn our app into a super-app for garages to provide services like insurance, tools and vehicle diagnostics,” said Kamdar.

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