Zevo cofounder built car-rental business into EV fleet platform for gig workers

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Zevo EV fleet for gig workers

Highlights

Zevo cofounder Saimah Chaudhry grew a personal car rental venture into a fleet exceeding 50 cars, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.
Chaudhry's operational experience managing growing fleets led to a strategic shift focusing exclusively on electric vehicles due to lower maintenance needs.
Zevo, launched in 2021, connects EV fleet owners managing 5 to 250 vehicles with gig workers renting for about 90 days, with 8 million monthly miles driven.

From personal car sharing to fleet expansion

As first reported by Business Insider, Zevo cofounder and chief operating officer Saimah Chaudhry says she entered the vehicle-rental market in 2015 after learning about peer-to-peer car sharing from a client staying in Manhattan Beach.

Chaudhry says she listed her Smartcar for rent after realizing it was an underused asset while she was working from home at a SaaS company she had founded. She says demand came quickly, with one renter booking the car for three months, prompting her to lease and list additional vehicles before expanding into mid-range luxury models such as BMWs and Corvettes that were popular with tourists in the greater Los Angeles area.

She says the business eventually grew to a fleet of more than 50 cars and generated hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. After selling her SaaS company a little more than a year later, she used the timing to expand the rental operation further while also building a YouTube channel aimed at other fleet operators.

EV focus and gig-economy demand

Chaudhry says managing maintenance and logistics became one of the biggest operational challenges as the fleet expanded, even after moving cars from neighborhood street parking to a leased lot. She says that experience helped shape a later decision to focus on electric vehicles, which have fewer moving parts and lower maintenance demands.

About five years ago, she connected with another owner through her YouTube channel and began developing a business intended to improve on existing car-rental marketplace models by concentrating only on EVs. Zevo launched in 2021, and Chaudhry says vehicles on the platform now drive about 8 million miles each month.

The company’s model connects vehicle owners, who typically manage fleets of five to 250 cars, with renters who are largely gig-economy drivers seeking rentals of around 90 days. Chaudhry says she recently bought a Tesla to list on the platform after pausing rentals of her own vehicles while Zevo was getting established.

Our earlier article on BYD Malaysia’s CKD local-assembly plans explained that the automaker signed an MoU with Inokom Corporation to assemble vehicles in Kulim, Kedah, after dropping its earlier Tanjung Malim plant idea. We noted that the shift reflects how EV players are adapting their expansion strategy to local policy and supply-chain realities, even as details on models and production timelines remain pending.

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