SMRT’s EV arm Strides partners Chinese firm to form joint venture in electric mobility services

Strides Mobility announced today (April 22) that it has signed an agreement with DST (Shenzhen) to form a joint venture electric mobility service company called Strides DST Private Limited, or Strides-DST.

Strides is a subsidiary of SMRT, and is the first company in Singapore that operates an electric taxi fleet. With a strong branding in the mobility space, Strides offers expertise in EV repairs and maintenance capabilities, and extensive charging partner network.

Meanwhile, DST is the largest digital EV leasing player in China with more than 40,000 commercial EVs and technology capabilities in digital leasing and fleet solutions.

Under the brand EVCo, Strides-DST will work with partners in the ecosystem to lease electric vehicles to corporate clients with a full suite of EV services, including decarbonisation planning, operations planning, vehicle maintenance management, and digital solutions.

Helping companies seamlessly transition to an EV fleet

EVCo offers flexible electric mobility services for companies that want to accelerate the decarbonisation of their vehicle usage, while enhancing their productivity and managing the cost of business.

EVCo’s data-powered digital platform generates actionable insights to drive greater productivity, optimise utilisation of assets, and enhance safety. Companies can increase their fleets’ productivity through the platform’s route optimisation feature, study data to improve driver behaviour, and use its battery management feature to enhance battery life and reduce maintenance costs.

With services that are tailored for individual operational needs and are scalable according to phases of business growth, EVCo will help companies to focus on their core business and at the same time, achieve their sustainability aspirations.

Fuji Foo, the managing director of Strides-DST, noted that there are currently more than 160,000 goods vehicles in Singapore. As such, it wants to help as many companies as possible transition their existing fleets to EVs quickly and productively, accelerating the transition to zero-transmission transportation.

At its launch event today, EVCo has successfully signed an agreement with its first customers to transit to an EV fleet, who are companies in the logistics, facility services and security industries.

“We firmly believe that EV is the future of mobility (and) we want to be a dominant player in the EV ecosystem. By providing electric mobility-as-a-service (EMaas), EVCo can help companies adopt EVs by offering them a seamless digital platform for end-to-end leasing and maintenance services,” said Seah Moon Ming, chairman of SMRT Corporation.

“EVCo will help businesses switch to a fully electric fleet of vehicles in a seamless manner, shaping mobility for a greener future. Our goal is to decarbonise mobility optimally through digitalisation and the use of data, first in Singapore and subsequently in the ASEAN region, Australia and New Zealand,” added Judy Lee, chairman of Strides-DST.

Featured Image Credit: SMRT