evee is revolutionising the ownership of electric vehicles like never seen before.
Meet Slava Kozlovskii, Founder & CEO of evee, who’s one step closer to his mission of having zero fossil fuel powered cars on the road.
We sat down with Slava to learn more about evee, what it’s like to run the Airbnb of electric vehicles, and the wider impact he’s seeking to create through his venture. Excerpts from our chat below :
Can you tell us more about evee, and what led to the inception of it?
A huge inspiration for me was Tesla’s own mission. I was extremely excited about what they were trying to achieve – making electric vehicles not only desirable, but a default type of car a consumer would want. The problem was (and still is) the upfront purchase price. Especially in Australia, a base “entry level” Tesla Model 3 costs close to A$80,000. When evee started, the only option was a Tesla Model S at $130,000. As inspiring as Tesla’s mission was, it was unaffordable for the majority of people.I remember one day following a Tesla Model S in my then-petrol car in Sydney and thinking “there must be a way for more people to experience what it’s like and get them excited about the future.” This is how the electric car rental idea came about. It was very easy on the paper, a lot harder to implement. Australia is seriously lagging in terms of EV adoption. Even today if we take an optimistic estimate of 20,000 for all Australian EVs (including PHEV), that is 0.1% out of the 19.8m total fleet.
When my partner and I started evee in 2015, there were probably 500 Teslas sold in Australia altogether. We were inevitably met with a great deal of apathy from the insurance and other industries. It was through sheer perseverance that we could achieve a financially viable and rapidly growing business model. The business model has transformed into an Airbnb-style car sharing operation whereby we allow owners and renters to share their EVs with others. The main motivation behind evee is to encourage people to try EVs and ultimately transition to their own electric car. We’ve now seen the full cycle close up, with some of our early renters buying a Tesla to share it with others and continue spreading the experience. This is the kind of community we want to build where people share experiences and knowledge of driving electric. My personal motivation stems from feeling strongly about leaving this planet a better place for my children. I would have probably given up after a year of seeing very little progress if that piece of the puzzle wasn’t there.
“The business model has transformed into an Airbnb-style car sharing operation whereby we allow owners and renters to share their EVs with others.”
How does your platform work?
We allow anyone with an EV to list their car and make it available to others for rent. We provide them with commercial rental insurance as well as a payments, marketing, booking and communication platform. We charge 35% commission for the service, 10% of which is the insurance cost. It's basically a one stop shop for anyone looking at starting a small sustainability-driven electric car rental business or simply offsetting the cost of the EV they already have. We also simplify the choice of buying an EV for many owners by providing them with a rental income stream from their car. Having this income makes it much easier to justify the higher upfront cost of buying an EV. Our owners have received between $5,000 and $20,000 per year depending on location, pricing, and availability. This greatly offsets the ownership costs. On the other side of the marketplace are the renters who book these cars for travel, experience and business purposes. Prior to COVID, 20% of our customers were from overseas and we're seeing the increase in this demographic again now. Others just want to have an extended test drive prior to buying an electric vehicle themselves. We've got a video here from a couple of years ago, but here are hosts talking about evee.
Can you tell us a bit more about your background?
I studied for a BA in Engineering in St Petersburg. My family had always planned on leaving Russia, and when at 15, I spent three weeks in England, I went back home convinced that my future lay in another country. I arrived in Australia in 2011 and continued to study at the University of Technology in Sydney, gaining both a Masters in Engineering Management and an MBA. I am endlessly grateful to be in Australia.My first venture was founding Tapnlike, a mobile app that makes products more interactive. It was a rapid failure and a huge learning experience. As a founder, I loved the product and had so much faith in it that I fell into the entrepreneurial trap of failing to plan out a viable business model for it. Having learnt from the mistakes, my partner and I started evee two years later in 2015 to make sustainable electric transport available, accessible and affordable for everyone.
What’s been the most exciting part about getting evee up and running?
Getting the insurance breakthrough, which was a mentally exhausting challenge. Since this happened in 2019 we've been on a continuous growth trajectory. The growth has enabled us to grow an amazing team, working with whom is the most exciting thing for me day-to-day. I am also excited about the positive impact we're having on the industry and ultimately on the environment. That is through encouraging the transition to clean transportation.
What’s been some major achievements for you over the past year?
Some of the major ones have been reaching 100 vehicles listed on the platform, growing the team to 9 people, and raising the seed round at the end of 2021!
And can you tell us about some of the more challenging aspects of running your business? What sorts of hiccups have you had to overcome?
Creating a workable insurance solution still remains the hardest part since launching the business 6 years ago. In 2016, the insurers didn't want to hear the word "Tesla" let alone in the car-sharing context. These were unknown vehicles and "unknown" is the scariest word to any insurer. It took me close to 100 phone calls to get the first vehicle insured. For the next 3 years we remained at between three and five EVs, held back by insurance difficulties and its prohibitively high cost. The hard slog to get this sorted seemed insurmountable. At one point, I had become so frustrated that I decided to try and launch in California. In 2018, evee became a finalist in the California Climate Cup run through a Los Angeles accelerator. I met another company competing who were also doing EVs and spent six months discussing joining forces as they had complementary strengths. However, it came to nothing, and magically, at that particular point, the insurance problems in Australia cleared.
What’s the sort of feedback you’ve received from your clients up to date? Any particular ones that stood out to you and helped make your offering better?
I remember one very early customer when we only had one rental vehicle. He was a big guy, who turned up to pick up the Tesla, looked at me piercingly in the eyes and said "Thank you for creating a company like this so we can try this for ourselves." This was quite emotional albeit short lived, but has certainly stayed with me. I also love hearing the stories of people renting a car through evee and then going on to buy one to share with others. The standouts are also when parents rent a car for their Tesla-obsessed kids. They sometimes leave very cute hand-written thank you cards to the hosts for making it happen.
“ I remember one very early customer when we only had one rental vehicle. He was a big guy, who turned up to pick up the Tesla, looked at me piercingly in the eyes and said "Thank you for creating a company like this so we can try this for ourselves.""
What sort of impact do you seek to create through your venture?
Our mission is to accelerate electric vehicle adoption to support a cleaner future for all. Every time someone chooses to rent an electric car for their next adventure over a petrol-powered vehicle, it's a win! We want to make ownership of an electric vehicle as simple and affordable as possible. And also get more people excited about the cleaner future we can all build together.
What’s next on the cards for evee? And what would you say is your ultimate goal?
Next up is launching in New Zealand, which is now imminent. Following the NZ launch, we'll be looking to expand our services to the UK, followed by EU, USA and Canada. We’re also currently raising capital to accelerate our growth and expansion.
Our positive impact is aligned with the growth of our organisation so the ultimate goal is to have zero fossil fuel powered cars on the road. The sooner the better.
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To learn more about evee, head here.
To get in touch with Slava directly, click here.
By Nikita Lamba
