We Are Creating A Strong Talent Pool Of EV Mechanics – Mihir Mohan
Pitstop Launched in 2015, Pitstop India’s first independent doorstep car service & repairs provider. With its own inspection mechanism and service centre network, Pitstop offers a standardized service model at Transparent, Economical and Convenient car services solution. Founded by Mihir Mohan , Pitstop is a Bangalore based Start-Up with operations in Bangalore, Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad. Pitstop has raised two rounds of funding worth $2.9 million from Blume Ventures & Goldbell Group. BW Businessworld recently spoke to Mr. Mihir Mohan about the challenges faced in the Aftermarket Car Service market. Here are excerpts
1. After Market Car Servicing has been an unorganized market in India, how does Pitstop Fit in?
As the After Market car servicing industry was unorganized, it became an opportunity for Pitstop to enter into this market. We are organizing the automotive industry by standardizing a network of workshops along with providing convenient & transparent doorstep service.
2. Often Independent Automotive Service providers don’t get the credibility compared to Company owned service centers, how is Pitstop handling this situation?
Every Car undergoes wear and tear with time and in an urbanized, fast-paced world, it becomes tedious to take your car to the authorized service dealers every time your car requires repair. Not only is it time consuming but also expensive. The main trends of customers in the automotive industry show that the standards of service expectations have increased with a high demand for transparency in the process of servicing. 61% customers go to a company owned service center and out of that 47% are willing to change their current service center. We have standardized our service by providing a the same at fixed price across partner workshops, ensuring quality & use of genuine spare parts coupled with fleet of mobile vans with in-house trained technicians thereby giving convenient car service & repair option to customers reducing their switching cost.
3. Fleet Operators, Corporates and Personal vehicle owners, How does Pitstop work with different market segments?
We have standardized our workshops based on several parameters. Currently we have 3 different categories of workshops for Fleet Operators, Corporates/Personal vehicle & Premium cars segment.
4. Door to Door, Car service and repairs – how does it work ?
Yes, we have made this possible! We have our fleet of doorstep vans which is equipped with all the necessary tools and equipment required at the time of servicing. Once the customer books an appointment in our website, our service advisor does the required service including car wash at customer’s convenient place & time. We manage all the spare parts supply from our central hub & network of spare distributors in the city.
5. What if the vehicle has been a part of an accident and needs bodywork?
For any body repair work, we send an expert technician at the doorstep to inspect the car & provide an instant quote to customers. Post inspection, we will send a quote along with inspection report to the customer and then arrange the pickup of the car which will be repaired at one of our Pitstop certified garages in the network.
6. With alternative fuels like CNG, Hybrids, plugin hybrids and fully electric vehicles coming into the picture, How is Pitstop handling this situation, as ICE mechanics and EV mechanics are different.
We strongly believe that the backbone of car servicing & repair industry is the supply. We are preparing ourselves for the future and thus we are keeping our eyes and ears open regarding development in EV industry. We are working towards creating a strong talent pool of EV mechanics who will eventually become our strength in time to come.
7. With increasing electronics and complexity in the Modern Cars, is door to door service viable?
Our Service advisors are highly skilled and they undergo stringent training & tests every now and then. We have made sure that our technicians are well-versed & updated with the latest technologies. Our doorstep vehicles have all the modern tools & equipment including OBD based and high end scanners which can easily deal with complexities involved in Modern Cars.
8. What is Pitstop presence like in India?
We are currently serving 7 cities - Bangalore, Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad.
9. What are Pitstop Expansion plans ?
We are currently serving 7 cities - Bangalore, Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Pune , Chennai and Hyderabad, and plan to become a Pan-India brand by 2021. We also have entered into a joint venture with Goldbell Group - a leading brand in providing cars on leasing, launching an end-to-end platform for service management and vehicle repairs in Singapore.
10. How has the traction been ?
Our monthly revenue is ~ $405K (INR 2.85Cr). This has been growing at the rate of 455% yearly.
11. What are your plans for 2019?
2019 is the year to scale up our B2C business in existing cities including Bangalore, Delhi, and Gurgaon. Also we have expansion plan for other Tier 1 cities as well. We are planning to hire 2000+ skilled technicians for our doorstep services.
