Zoom: The 2nd Largest Car-Sharing Company in the Developing World

Here at Zoom we are proud to announce that we have hit a major milestone in the expansion of our company. We have officially doubled the size of our fleet from 50 cars to 100! With the addition of these cars we are now the 2^nd largest car-sharing company in the developing world! Quite the impressive feat considering that we have been in business for just under a year.

So how does Zoom compare to other car-sharing companies from developing economies? Let’s see.

The largest car-sharing company in the developing world is eHi in China. Founded in 2006, eHi offers both self-drive and chauffer-drive services. They have a fleet of over 10,000 cars, with more than 100 varieties of vehicles. They are currently across 500 locations in over 70 cities and have no intentions of slowing down anytime soon. Their fleet consists of Buick, Volkswagen, Mercedes, BMW, Honda, Toyota, Mazda and others, as well as vans and buses.  They have raised $160 million in outside investment, led by Goldman Sachs!  Is that the next step for Zoom…?

Brail’s Zazcar was the first company in the developing world to adopt the purely self-drive “Zipcar model” of car sharing. Founded in 2009, Zazcar has 80 cars spread across 45 locations across Sao Paulo, and their cars include hatchbacks, sedans, SUV’s, pickup trucks, and vans as well. Many have tried to replicate the Zazcar’s bold innovation in Brazil, but few have reached their level of success.

Following the Latin American success of Zazcar, a car sharing company in Mexico called Carrot is taking the country by storm. Founded in March of 2012, the company has a fleet of 40 cars including the Nissan Leaf, Nissan X Trail, and Nissan March. With the addition of the Nissan Leaf they became the first car-sharing company in an emerging market to offer a fully electric vehicle. They have received tremendous support from the government thus far, and have been generating a very positive response in Mexico City.

Inspired partially by the success of car-sharing in the US, Canada, and Europe, other car-sharing companies are springing up around the world – in places like Japan, Korea, and Singapore.  Of course, those countries are already highly developed, but more and more membership-based car clubs are thriving in other developing countries such as Turkey – Istanbul now boasts 3:  YoYo, Atlagit, and Mobilizm.

Of these car sharing organizations in developing markets, Zoom is without questions the fastest growing! Zazcar has been operating for over 4 years and has 80 cars. Carrot has been operating for just under 2 years and has 40 cars. Zoom has been in operation for 11 months and we are already at 100 cars spread across Bangalore!  Despite our young age, Zoom has been expanding rapidly with no signs of slowing down. eHI watch out … we’re coming for ya!

We’ve had a lot of other firsts.  We are the first (and only) car-sharing company in India, and the only company in India that focuses on self-drive car rental (rather than the chauffeur-driven model that other companies focus on).  We were the first car rental company in India to offer a plug-in electric vehicle (the Mahindra REVA E2O).  And we are the first and only car hire company in India to offer the brand new Ford EcoSport, an “urban SUV” that is specifically designed in Brazil and India to handle the tough roads in developing world cities.

Obviously, this is a very exciting time for us here at Zoom. None of it would have been possible without our amazing members. In the coming months we will continue to add more cars and more locations around Bangalore, so please provide us with your feedback about what you would like to see!