German specialist in sustainable freight and passenger transport, Quantron has entered into a joint venture with India’s Goldstone Technologies (GTL) to develop technology to host and enable the digital platform for Quantron’s 360-degree ecosystem Quantron-as-a-Service (QaaS).
The platform will be OEM agnostic and will power the various services entailed in QaaS.
Transactions ranging from vehicle deployment, route planning, charging or refuelling, use of filling stations, energy consumption as well as performance measurement, amongst others, will be bundled and offered to customers / fleet operators and logistics companies in the target markets of Europe, the Middle East, USA and India.
Under the joint venture, Quantron will contribute its market knowledge and deploy its zero-emission vehicles through the digital platform, while GTL will supply the software and handle the integration of the customized platform as a technical development partner.
It will also cover the distribution, sale and commercialisation of the software as a white-label solution to third parties. The JV will be established in Augsburg, Germany and Hyderabad, India with plans to set-up a US branch in Q3 CY2023.
Through the Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) approach, Quantron-as-a-Service will provide its customers with trucks and buses at a price per kilometre.
The digital platform will therefore operate as a transaction platform, where all processes are orchestrated in the background. Via its user front-end, customers will also be able to measure the performance of the zero-emission vehicle to increase efficiency, such as hydrogen consumption, kilometres driven or CO2 mitigated.
This can for example be used by the customer also to trade GHG (greenhouse gas) quotas, where allowed by the regulator.
As a value-added service, the platform will also be used to provide insurance (insurance-as-a-service) and, in the medium term, enable trading of CO2 certificates.
Pavan Chavali, MD, GTL said, “We are excited and look forward to establishing this JV as a key enabler for the unique Quantron-as-a-Service software and transaction platform. This innovative platform will combine transaction capabilities from Fuel (hydrogen) billing and roaming, fleet management, geo-mapping location services for hydrogen fuelling stations, service capabilities and many more. “
Michael Perschke, CEO, Quantron added, “We will be serving a market which is undergoing a dramatic transformation, where logistic companies have an urgent need for decarbonization and organizing their business in a digital and more effective way. Our JV will be a key enabler for the transformation to zero-emission transportation. We anticipate this market to be valued between 150-250 billion euro (Rs 1,318,200 – 2,197,000 crore) by 2030.”
“Together with our Indian partner ETO Motors we will have close to 1,000 vehicles on the road from the very beginning, using the Beta version software solution developed in cooperation with GTL and as part of Quantron-as-a-Service. Our ambition is to onboard more partners in due course and become a full-service transaction platform for Mobility-as-a-Service, “concluded Perschke.