Vidyut Launches Offline Pre-Owned EV Sales, Financing Platform

Bengaluru-based electric mobility start-up Vidyut on Thursday announced the launch of its offline pre-owned EV sales and financing platform. 

The latest offline services have been made available in Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru to begin with, while the plans are to expand them into six more markets, including Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Lucknow, Agra, and Kanpur, by the end of this fiscal year, Vidyut said. The company said it plans to launch an online marketplace as well in the next six months. 

Under the new offering, the company will manage the end-to-end process from vehicle inspection and valuation to sale and RTO documentation for the owners, the Bengaluru-headquartered firm said. Currently, the platform offers the resale of electric commercial three-wheelers from brands such as Mahindra, Piaggio, Euler Motors, Greaves, and Altigreen, among others. 

“The absence of a robust resale market is one of the biggest roadblocks to the acceleration of EV adoption. With the launch of our EV resale platform, we will bring trust and transparency to the pre-owned EV market by focusing on accurate and transparent vehicle and battery valuation,” said Xitij Kothi, Co-Founder, Vidyut. 

“Vidyut’s resale platform already leads to 3–4X better resale price realization compared to traditional second-hand dealers in the market for used EVs. Coupled with Vidyut’s battery subscription model and EV financing services, this approach mitigates the risk of the remaining battery life, uncertain resale value, and EV loans, thereby accelerating EV adoption," added Kothi. 

Vidyut started in November 2021 as a commercial EV financing platform. One of the major hurdles in EV adoption is the lack of accessibility to the resale market and resale price discovery of EVs. Therefore, over the last two years, the company has built capabilities to inspect, value, sell, and finance pre-owned EVs through its own demand generation platform for used EVs, the company said. 

In February, Vidyut raised $10 million in its Series A fundraise, led by 3one4 Capital. In addition, both new and old investors, Saison Capital, Zephyr Peacock, Force Ventures, venture debt fund Alteria Capital, and co-founder of Udaan Sujeet Kumar, participated in the round. Vidyut was able to further its goal of supporting India's clean energy transition and expanding EV ownership for SMBs thanks to a new fundraising round. 

(With inputs from PTI)