As competition intensifies in India’s electric vehicle (EV) market and hardware margins come under pressure, startups are increasingly betting on software, data and fleet intelligence to build recurring revenue streams and improve profitability.
Founders across the mobility ecosystem told The Economic Times that commercial fleet operators are now demanding services such as predictive maintenance, battery analytics, fleet management, charging optimisation and AI-powered route planning, signalling a shift from selling vehicles to offering integrated mobility platforms.
“The EV industry is rapidly shifting from a product-centric model to a platform-centric model,” said Hiten Pal Saklani, CEO-Designate of BikeWo Green Tech. “While vehicle sales remain important, we see significantly higher long-term value in recurring technology and service revenues through fleet management, predictive maintenance, battery health analytics, financing enablement and energy management.” He expects software, fleet management and energy services to contribute 25-35% of the company’s revenues over the next three to five years.
The shift comes as vehicle manufacturers grapple with shrinking hardware margins amid rising competition, localisation efforts and pricing pressure. Instead of relying solely on one-time vehicle sales, startups are looking to generate predictable cash flows through subscription-based digital services.
Tarun Jain, cofounder of LetzRyd, said the company is seeing growing demand for connected mobility solutions. “Fleet management, battery management, predictive maintenance, charging management and AI-powered mobility intelligence are becoming important long-term revenue sources as fleets become increasingly connected,” he said. Hardware margins have become more competitive, prompting the company to deepen its focus on recurring software revenues.
For fleet customers, the buying decision is also evolving.
“Customers are asking for certainty rather than just vehicles,” said Nikhil Anand Khurana, managing director and CEO of Folks Motor. “They want battery health, charging patterns, downtime risks, maintenance schedules and total cost of ownership in real time. What they really value is uptime, predictability, financing support and operational control.” He added that the company’s future growth will increasingly come from combining fleet intelligence, battery analytics, charging infrastructure and financing into a unified operating ecosystem.
The emergence of software-led services is also creating opportunities for companies building technology around commercial fleets.
Rahul Mehra, cofounder of Roadcast, said customers are increasingly seeking “complete operational intelligence rather than just vehicle tracking”. According to him, AI-powered fleet management, predictive maintenance, video telematics, battery analytics and route optimisation are helping fleet operators improve asset utilisation, reduce downtime and make faster operational decisions. “Competitive advantage no longer comes from the device itself but from the intelligence built around it,” he said.
Industry executives believe the next phase of India’s EV market will be defined less by vehicle specifications and more by the software layer that improves fleet uptime, lowers operating costs and strengthens customer retention. As commercial adoption accelerates, startups are positioning themselves not merely as EV manufacturers but as end-to-end mobility technology platforms offering vehicles, software, energy management and financing under one umbrella.
Published on July 6, 2026
