Own Chennai's electric auto fleet.
Draw a fixed 30% p.a. payout, every month.
You invest in L5 electric three-wheelers. Steward operates every one of them — hubs, drivers, collections, maintenance and resale. A monthly rental franchise for passenger and cargo e-autos, built on the operating model that already runs 4,000+ EVs across five Indian cities.
Extending a working franchise model to a higher-yielding asset
A FOCO franchise for electric three-wheelers in Chennai. You own the L5 e-autos; Steward runs the hubs, drivers, collections and maintenance — and hands you a fixed monthly payout.
The Proposal
A FOCO franchise for electric three-wheelers. Franchisees own L5 e-autos; Steward runs hubs, drivers, collections and maintenance.
The Monthly Product
Vehicles go out on rolling monthly dry-lease contracts, not daily hire — predictable collections are what fund a fixed monthly payout.
The Offer
Steward Assured pays 2.5% of invested capital every month — 30.0% p.a. — for 48 months, with an assured 12% minimum residual.
Why It Works
An e-auto earns ~5.4% of its cost in monthly rent versus ~4.3% for an e-scooter — and cargo contracts are annual and B2B.
The two-wheeler programme proved the operating model. This plan applies it to an asset that earns more rent per rupee of cost.
The same platform, applied to an asset that earns more
Four times the asset cost of the two-wheeler programme — but a materially better rent-to-cost ratio, and demand that's part underwritten by corporate contracts.
| Metric | BLive EZY · e-2W running today | Steward · e-3W proposed |
|---|---|---|
| Asset cost, on-road | ₹75,000 – ₹1,10,000 | ₹3,25,000 – ₹3,85,000 |
| Contracted monthly rental | ₹3,500 – ₹4,500 | ₹17,500 – ₹21,500 |
| Monthly rent as % of asset cost | ≈ 4.3% | ≈ 5.4% |
| Gross collections over 48 months | ≈ 2.1x of investment | ≈ 2.45x of investment |
| Who rents it | Individual gig delivery rider | Auto driver, plus 3PL & q-commerce fleets |
| Contract shape | Individual, monthly, high churn | Individual monthly + B2B annual with lock-in |
| Revenue predictability | Driven by gig platform demand | Part-underwritten by corporate contracts |
| Maintenance intensity | Low | Moderate — three tyres, suspension, higher load |
A higher rent-to-cost ratio than the scooter — and with 40% of the fleet on B2B contracts, the monthly payout is far easier to underwrite.
A rental-first three-wheeler market that has barely started electrifying
Roughly 90,000 passenger autos and 18,000 last-mile cargo three-wheelers operate across Greater Chennai — almost none of them electric yet.
Three-wheelers on Chennai roads
City fleet size — passenger autos and last-mile cargo three-wheelers combined.
Operating on rental or lease
A large share of Chennai auto drivers rent rather than own — thin credit access keeps them renting.
Q-commerce & 3PL build-out
Dark-store and delivery-station expansion creates contracted mid-mile and last-mile 3W demand.
Steward target fleet, by month 36
Realistically electrifiable target, including Metro Phase 2 feeder-route demand.
Funnel ratios are planning assumptions, not measured data — see the diligence slide.
At 824 vehicles, the Chennai book absorbs ≈ ₹28.5 Cr of franchise capital and generates ≈ ₹17.4 Cr of annual rental collections.
The only Indian metro where the OEM, the talent and the demand sit inside 50 km
An e-3W plant on the doorstep
Montra Electric builds its three-wheelers at Tiruvallur, ~40 km away. Warranty turnaround, spares and field engineers are local, not freighted in.
A supportive state policy
Tamil Nadu's EV policy has carried road-tax waivers and permit relaxations for EVs. Base-case returns assume no subsidy — incentives are pure upside.
A deep technician pool
The Ranipet–Hosur EV manufacturing belt supplies trained EV technicians — the constraint that slows hub scale-up in most cities.
Trip lengths that suit the range
Flat terrain and short average trips mean a 100–140 km certified range covers a full shift without an opportunity charge.
Why drivers switch
Per day, per vehicle, at 100 km of running — indicative Chennai rates. Fleet utilisation is not a marketing problem: a driver who switches is better off from day one.
CNG auto, daily hire
Driver carries fuel price risk and queue time.
Steward e-auto, monthly plan
Driver carries neither fuel price risk nor repair bills.
better off per month, at 26 working days — roughly ₹0.68 vs ₹2.75 energy cost per km, EV vs CNG.
Also removed for the driver: down payment and EMI, insurance renewal, RTO paperwork, repair bills, and the risk of a dead day when the vehicle breaks down.
A rolling one-month dry lease
The mechanism behind a fixed monthly payout — target vacancy between contracts is under 14 days, reflected as 92–95% occupancy in the model.
One month, auto-renewing
30 days' notice to exit either side. Refundable security deposit of ₹10,000.
1 collection vs ~26
Rent collected in advance, due by the 5th, via UPI auto-debit — no daily cash handling.
Sits with the driver
Not with the fleet. Lower churn thanks to the deposit and notice period.
Charge point at the hub
The driver pays for units consumed — insulating the payout from tariff moves.
Known before month starts
Cargo contracts carry 12-month B2B lock-ins available for the harder-to-move demand.
Insurance, servicing, RTO
Breakdown recovery, and a replacement vehicle within 24 hours of a hard failure.
Which vehicles, and why
Indicative specifications and pricing, to be confirmed against live OEM quotations.
| Model | Class | Battery | Range | On-road price | Role in fleet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mahindra Treo | L5 passenger | ≈ 7.4 kWh Li-ion | ≈ 140 km | ₹3.2 – 3.4 L | Core passenger — 40% |
| Montra Super Auto | L5 passenger | ≈ 10 kWh LFP | ≈ 180 km | ₹3.6 – 4.0 L | Long-shift passenger — 20% |
| Piaggio Ape E-City FX Max | L5 passenger | ≈ 8 kWh fixed | ≈ 145 km | ₹3.3 – 3.6 L | Pilot batch — swap-ready |
| Treo Zor / Montra Super Cargo | L5 cargo | 7.4 – 10 kWh | 125 – 170 km | ₹3.6 – 4.0 L | Cargo for B2B — 40% |
| Mahindra e-Alfa Super | L3 e-rickshaw | Lead-acid | ≈ 80 km | ₹1.6 – 1.8 L | Not recommended |
Why the e-Alfa is excluded
An L3 e-rickshaw: a 25 km/h class vehicle on lead-acid batteries with an 18–24 month pack life, no established Chennai permit pathway, and effectively no resale market. It cannot carry a 48-month payout.
Procurement principles
Dual-source across at least two OEMs to avoid single-brand resale illiquidity. Buy only packs warranted for three years or more. Negotiate bulk B2B pricing and a written buy-back reference before the first tranche.
Choose fixed certainty, or market-linked upside
Both options run on the same vehicles, the same hubs, and the same operating team.
Steward Assured — the monthly option
- 2.5% of invested capital every month, credited on the 7th
- 48-month tenure, with monthly MIS and fleet-level reporting
- Assured minimum residual of 12%; any resale upside passed through
- Steward absorbs occupancy, rate and default risk
Steward Actual — market-linked
- Actual collections, less operating cost, less a 15% management fee
- Upside case 39.8% p.a.; conservative case 24.3% p.a.
- Residual realised at market, with no assured floor
- The franchisee carries occupancy, rate and default risk
The Assured option gives up roughly 3 percentage points of modelled yield in exchange for Steward carrying the downside — which is the whole point of the monthly product.
Pick your fleet size. Capital deploys in one tranche.
Fleet mix held at 60% passenger / 40% cargo across every tier. Vehicles are registered in your name from day one — you own the asset, Steward only operates it.
Per vehicle, per month — base case
Every line is an assumption to be validated against Chennai rate cards.
| Line item | Passenger | Cargo |
|---|---|---|
| Asset cost, on-road | ₹3,25,000 | ₹3,85,000 |
| Contracted monthly rental | ₹17,500 | ₹21,500 |
| Occupancy assumption | 92% | 95% |
| Effective collections | ₹16,100 | ₹20,425 |
| Total operating cost | (5,272) | (5,804) |
| Net operating income | ₹10,828 | ₹14,621 |
| as annual yield on asset cost | 40.0% | 45.6% |
| Management fee, 15% of collections | (2,415) | (3,064) |
| Net to franchisee — Actual option | ₹8,413 | ₹11,557 |
Where every ₹100 of collections goes
Cargo carries the fleet: it costs 18% more but earns 27% more rent on steadier B2B contracts.
Blended fleet NOI reaches 42.4% p.a. — which is what funds the assured payout.
Capital of ₹34.9L is recovered in month 40
Investment ₹34,90,000 · 10 vehicles · 48-month tenure · Assured monthly option.
Cumulative cash returned (₹ Lakh)
Capital recovery crosses ₹34.9L between month 36 and month 40; residual value lands the total at 1.32x by month 48.
Two different measures, shown deliberately. "2.45x gross collections" is total rent collected before operating cost — the headline convention used in the two-wheeler deck. "1.32x total cash returned" and the 14.0% IRR are net of every cost, and are what actually reaches the franchisee.
What happens when assumptions move
Core tier, market-linked option, 48 months.
| Driver | Conservative | Base | Upside |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rental rates versus base | −10% | Base | +8% |
| Occupancy, passenger / cargo | 85% / 90% | 92% / 95% | 96% / 98% |
| Residual at month 48 | 14% | 20% | 24% |
| Net to franchisee, per month | ₹70,781 | ₹96,706 | ₹1,15,715 |
| Annual yield on capital | 24.3% | 33.3% | 39.8% |
| Total cash returned by month 48 | 1.11x | 1.53x | 1.83x |
| Net IRR | 4.9% | 22.0% | 34.1% |
| Payback | 49 months | 36 months | 30 months |
Break-even occupancy on Assured: 74.1%
Against a planned 93.4% — a cushion of 19 percentage points before Steward is paying out of its own pocket.
The conservative case is the honest argument for Assured
At −10% rentals the market-linked option returns only 1.11x and a 4.9% IRR. Assured converts that tail into a fixed 30% p.a.
The Chennai hub network
Five hubs phased over 20 months. Hub capital and running cost sit with Steward, not the franchisee.
Ambattur / Padi
Industrial belt and q-commerce corridor.
Perungudi / OMR
IT corridor, dense dark-store cluster.
Madhavaram
North Chennai, wholesale market traffic.
Tambaram / GST Rd
South-west residential and transit demand.
Porur / Poonamallee
West Chennai growth corridor.
Hub footprint
7,000–10,000 sq ft leased yard, workshop bay, driver rest area, 24×7 security.
Charging
14–18 AC points per hub with 20% spare capacity; overnight slotting.
Steward capital per hub
₹18–25L set-up, ₹1.6–2.2L monthly running cost — carried by Steward, not you.
The control layer that makes a remote, hands-off investment workable
Real-time GPS & geofencing
Live location, route replay and out-of-zone alerts on every vehicle.
Remote immobilisation
Vehicle can be disabled on payment default or unauthorised use, from the hub.
Battery health telemetry
State of charge, cycle count and pack degradation tracked against the warranty curve.
Driver KYC & digital contracting
Identity and address verification, e-signed agreement, UPI standing instruction.
Franchisee dashboard
Per-vehicle utilisation, collections, downtime and earnings, refreshed daily.
Predictive maintenance
Service triggered on usage and fault codes rather than on a fixed calendar.
Monthly MIS is issued with the payout on the 7th, alongside a named relationship manager on 24×7 call.
What each side commits to, in writing
Set out in the franchise agreement.
Franchisee
- Fund the fleet in one tranche, per the agreed vehicle mix
- Hold registration and ownership of the vehicles
- Complete KYC and execute the franchise agreement
- Countersign insurance claims within agreed timelines
- Review fleet performance on the dashboard and monthly MIS
Steward
- Procure and deliver the fleet at negotiated B2B pricing
- Register, insure and fit telematics on every vehicle
- Run the hub: charging, parking, security, workshop
- Source, verify and manage drivers and B2B contracts
- Collect rent and remit the payout on the 7th of each month
- Carry out all servicing, repairs and roadside assistance
- Handle RTO matters and manage insurance claims end to end
- Provide a named relationship manager, available 24×7
- Arrange resale at end of tenure, at the assured floor or better
Ninety days to a deployed, revenue-generating fleet
Sign LOI & franchise agreement
Vehicle mix, tier and hub allocation confirmed in writing.
Capital deployed, OEM order placed
Bulk B2B pricing locked; delivery schedule confirmed with the OEM.
Registration, insurance, fitment
Vehicles registered in your name, insured, and telematics fitted.
Fleet deployed, revenue starts
Drivers and B2B contracts onboarded; utilisation begins to ramp.
First payout lands on the 7th of the month following full deployment. The timeline is longer than the two-wheeler programme because L5 registration and OEM lead times on three-wheelers are materially slower — planning for 60 days would be optimistic.
The five that move the return, and one that ends the model
| Risk | Why it matters | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| Rental realisation below plan | A 10% rate shortfall takes the market-linked IRR from 22.0% to 4.9%. | Anchor 40–50% of the fleet on 12-month B2B cargo contracts; Assured option transfers the risk to Steward. |
| Driver default & misuse | Dues write-offs and vehicle abuse hit both collections and residual value. | ₹10,000 deposit, KYC and verification, UPI auto-debit, geofencing, remote immobilisation on default. |
| Battery degradation | Pack replacement at ₹85,000–95,000 wipes out roughly a year of payout. | Buy only packs warranted three years or longer; track degradation against the warranty curve; tenure capped at 48 months. |
| Residual value uncertainty | Terminal value is 12–20% of capital — a real part of the return. | Assured 12% floor with upside passed through; dual-OEM sourcing keeps the resale market liquid. |
| Regulatory change | Road-tax, permit or subsidy changes shift capex and operating cost. | Base case modelled with no subsidy, so incentives are upside only; permit position confirmed in diligence. |
| Aggregator take-rate squeeze | If platform commissions rise, driver income falls and rental affordability erodes — the structural risk. | Diversify across multiple platforms plus direct B2B and SME contracts, so no single aggregator sets the ceiling. |
Nothing here is a quoted price or a measured market figure
Pricing to confirm with OEMs
- Bulk B2B ex-showroom pricing on each shortlisted model
- Written pack warranty terms and buy-back reference price
- Delivery lead times for a 10–20 vehicle tranche
Rates to confirm in Chennai
- Achievable monthly rental for passenger and cargo three-wheelers
- Prevailing CNG auto daily hire rate and CNG price per kg
- Commercial insurance premium for L5 electric three-wheelers
Regulatory position to confirm
- Current TN road-tax exemption status for commercial EVs
- Permit requirement and availability for L5 e-autos in Chennai
- Any live central demand incentive at time of purchase
Demand assumptions to test
- Share of Chennai auto drivers operating on rental rather than owning
- Realistic vacancy between monthly contracts (modelled at 14 days)
- Contractable cargo demand from q-commerce and 3PL operators
Recommended next step: a four-week validation sprint — three OEM quotations, twenty driver interviews, and two signed cargo letters of intent — before any capital is committed.
A franchise model already running at scale, applied to a better asset
Seven years, 4,000+ EVs
Steward is launched by AIboost, which has run electric last-mile fleets since 2018 across five cities. This is an extension, not an experiment.
A fixed monthly payout
30.0% p.a., credited on the 7th, with an assured residual floor. Steward carries occupancy and rate risk.
100% FOCO
You own the vehicles. Steward runs hubs, drivers, collections, servicing and resale. Zero operational involvement.
Fully remote & digital
Invest from anywhere and monitor every vehicle on the franchisee dashboard.
Higher yield than the 2W book
5.4% of asset cost in monthly rent versus 4.3% on the BLive EZY two-wheeler book, and 2.45x gross collections.
Named relationship manager
A single point of contact on 24×7 call, plus monthly MIS with the payout.
Chennai first, then the same playbook into Bengaluru, Pune, Kolkata and Goa, where BLive already runs hubs.
Ready to put capital to work in Chennai's e-mobility market?
Request the full investor deck, or start with the four-week validation sprint: three OEM quotations, twenty driver interviews, and two signed cargo letters of intent — before any capital is committed.
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