https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9aEWxexrMI

Pay-per-use EV leasing for public transport fleets

GerWeiss builds:
i) charging network infrastructure to support our
ii) pay per use Electric Vehicles for public transport and logistics vehicles.

This solves the main challenges that most fleets face when converting to electric:
i) acquisition cost
ii) where to charge
iiI) how to maintain

Our ecosystem provides everything a fleet needs to go electric sustainably:
i) Pay-per-use electric vehicles
ii) Batteries-as-a-Service with 2-minute hot-swapping
iii) Local fast charging and swapping stations

Public transportation market size: $15/day x 365 days x 4,856,000 units = $26B/year

Additional details:
Our in-house EV design and manufacturing allows us to offer and iterate towards the best possible solution for our users.
We deploy a network of charging, swapping, and service stations within their area of operations to ensure the highest operational rate which enhances the profitability of the drivers.
Our pay-per-use business model solves the resistance of public transport drivers to shift to EVs.

The pay-per-use business model is particularly important to scale up the penetration of the market and it is also the key for the long term revenue of the company.

As we expand throughout these cities, public transport serves as a profitable beachhead to then transition to the private transport market.

Private + Public transportation market size: $20/day x 365 days x 20,000,000 units = $166.7B/year

Manila, Philippines / Manila, Philippines

Revenue:
i) Pivoted to new business model in Q1 2020.
ii) Bootstrapped to $200k revenue in 2021.
iii) Projected to reach $1M revenue in 2022.

Traction:
i) First ecosystem launched in Boracay island–highest earning trike market and #1 tourist destination in the Philippines.
ii) 60 vehicles operating earning $95k MRR or $1M ARR.
iii) Boracay Govt has written us a letter asking us to ~6x our fleet to 350 vehicles = $577k MRR / $7M ARR
iv) Boracay Govt contacts have also informed us that 150 drivers operating under competitors want to switch to GerWeiss potential 500 vehicles = $825k MRR / $10M ARR

Pending pilots, LOIs, MOAs:
i) E-Trikes (3-wheelers): 4 cities with TAM of 40,000 e-trikes = $140M/year
ii) E-Jeeps (mini-buses): 2 transport coops with TAM of 140,000 e-jeeps = $2B/year

Key relationships:
i) Newly appointed DILG secretary strong supporter of our project from when he was mayor in Mandaluyong City who we can tap to endorse us on a national scale
ii) President of the NCR Tricycle Driver association often tapped by national government to organize tricycle drivers at a national scale

i) Gerard has been working on electric tricycles full-time for the past 14 years.

ii) Gabby worked part-time on it for the first 9 years because I was in high-school then college taking up Electronics Engineering to take over as CTO. Full time for the last 5 years. Total 14 years.

iii) We have dedicated our lives to our goal of transforming the transportation of the Philippines and believe we can do so globally.

i) 60 e-trikes operating in Boracay Island which is the highest earning e-trike market in the Philippines.

ii) Our fleet averages $55/day per vehicle in Boracay earning about $95k MRR.

==Where does your revenue come from?==
i) We make money per vehicle operating in our fleet
ii) We charge a pay-per-use model that averages $55/day per vehicle in Boracay.
iii) Users are public transport operators that rely on the vehicle for daily income. Our fleet utilization rate in 2022 is 98%.

Boracay is a key market for us as it is the most profitable market in the country with a TAM of 600 vehicles at $12M/year.

We expect that with our socialized pricing the national average for public transportation will be $15/day.

4.8M vehicles x 15/day x 365 days = $26B/year

Further breakdown:

Daily Charges per unit in Boracay:
- Vehicle Lease Fee = $25
- Battery Lease Fee = $15
- Battery Swapping Fee = $4/swap x 3.2 avg swap/day = $13
- Maintenance Fee = $2
Total: $55/day

We expect the national average to be closer to this:
- Vehicle Lease Fee = $7
- Battery Lease Fee = $3
- Battery Swapping Fee = $1/swap x 3 avg swap/day = $3
- Maintenance Fee = $2
Total: $15/day

==Tell us more about your margins - more detail is better.==
i) Gross margin is 67%

ii) Monthly Breakdown per Unit:
Gross Revenue ($15/day): $450
COGS (Electricity): $80
OPEX (Salaries, General, Admin Expenses): $70
Net Revenue: $300

iii) Boracay is a key market for us because it’s the highest earning market in the Philippines. Gross Margin here is 91%:
Gross Revenue: $1650
COGS: $80
OPEX: $70
Net Revenue: $1500

==Anything else you would like us to know?==

i) We're currently in a position to get 70% of the market in Boracay.
ii) It currently costs us about $8,000 to build one e-trike. With our margins in Boracay, we get payback on these units within 6 months.
iii) At $8,000, our payback period on the national average will be 2 years.
iv) By claiming tax incentives with the newly passed EV Industry Development Bill and achieving economies of scale we can get our price per unit to $5400 and bring our payback period to 1.5 years.

N/A

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Why we chose this:
i) We picked public transportation initially because we wanted to eliminate massive amounts of pollution.

ii) After working with this sector, we realized that we could also uplift a vast majority of the Philippines from poverty.

Team:
i) We are the most experienced Electric Vehicle team in the Philippines.
ii) Gerard in a previous company essentially started the Philippine EV industry in 2008.
iii) Both Gabby and Gerard are considered experts in the field and have been invited to panel at conventions hosted by multinational organizations such as the United Nations and Asian Development Bank.

Who needs this:
Public transportation in the Philippines is basically lose-lose on both sides.
i) Public transport drivers work 16hr shifts to earn less than $5/day
ii) Commuters regularly struggle to get a ride and often wait 1-2 hours in line at a terminal or on the street before they can board a vehicle
iii) Both spend an average of 2 hours per day in traffic every day in vehicles that have not been updated in decades.
iv) Multiple laws promoting the use of Electric Vehicles have finally been passed just this Q2 2022.

Our competitors are other EV manufacturers in the country:
i) Two Japanese firms (Bemac & Prozza),
ii) One Korean firm (Korr E-Trike)
iii) One Philippine competitor (Tojo Motors).
iv) One Australian (Star8) competitor–recently learned they went bankrupt this year.

Our competitors in this space sell only the vehicle, battery, and charger as most EV suppliers do.

But they fail to understand the market they’re trying to supply to and make no effort to resolve their key issues:
i) They make it difficult to purchase their units because most of the public transportation drivers are unbankable or lack the requirements or credit score to apply for a loan.
ii) Private buyers cannot purchase because there is no after-sales support and insufficient charging stations to make using electric vehicles a viable daily option.
iii) Selling their vehicles leaves the users “holding the bag” and provides no incentive for them to continue maintaining their vehicles or providing after-sales service.
iv) Most companies resort to under specifications to be price competitive which creates a lot of dissatisfaction in the market.

Our key insight:
i) Our pay-per-use fits with the Filipino psyche and makes adoption as frictionless as possible.
ii) The support our ecosystem and infrastructure provides is the key to retaining our clients and providing sustainability to our users. This will ultimately empower us to become the de facto option in transportation for decades to come.
iii) Our socialized pricing puts our users first while allowing us to remain profitable, sustainable, and attainable for the whole market in the long term.

Public transport ecosystem:
i) We earn from the daily use of our vehicles, batteries, and charging network, and will average $15/day per vehicle.
ii) We collect this daily and in cash from our charging stations whenever drivers come in for a swap. Our vehicles for lease do not have on board chargers and swapping at our station is mandatory.
iii) There are about 4.8M vehicles operating under public transport in the Philippines.

TAM for Public Transport Vehicle Leasing: 4.8M vehicles x $15/day = $26B/year

Integrated ride-hailing app:
i) Soon, we plan to integrate our vehicles with a ride-hailing app, and because we own the vehicles, and work with the drivers daily we can make onboarding easy and mandatory.
ii) Since our vehicles already have public transport permits we avoid any issues that Grab or Uber experienced.

TAM for Public Transpo Ride-hailing: 10 trips per day x $1 booking fee x 4.8M vehicles = $17.7B/year

Our business model disrupts the industries for vehicle sales (no need to purchase), gas stations (no need for gas), and ride hailing apps. Our ecosystem absorbs all those industries with minimal friction on the user side.

When we win this we run all sides of public transportation.

More details, breakdown, and far-out plans below:
i) The public transportation market is segmented into the following vehicles and we project that we can conservatively charge the following average daily rates based on amortization, maintenance, and fuel costs:

Three Wheelers: 4,500,000 units x $10/day x 365 days/year = $16.4B/year
Jeepneys: 300,000 units x $40/day x 365 days/year = $4.4B/year
Buses: 26,000 units x $200/day x 365 days/year = $1.9B/year
Trucks: 30,000 units x $300/day x 365 days/year = $3.3B/year
Total: $26B/year

ii) Our charging infrastructure embeds us into the transportation system and will allow us to eventually expand into the private transport sector on the same business model:

TAM for Private* + Public Transpo: $133B/year
*when you add Cars, UV, SUV, and two wheelers.

Three entities:
Philippine C-Corp - GerWeiss Motors Corporation
Delaware C-Corp - GerWeiss Motors Corporation
California LLC - GerWeiss EV USA LLC

All fully owned by the Founders.

Current equity ownership:
Gerard Villoria (50%)
Gabby Villoria (50%)

Mother company registered in Delaware formed in December 2021. Our Philippine entity is a registered Vehicle Manufacturer in the Philippines and also fully owned by the founders.

None

We integrate some off-the-shelf parts for our vehicle, but the designs and specs of the vehicles have always been done by the founders.

Eventually we will design and manufacture all parts in-house.

None

We’re all in on the electric vehicles but we also want to operate a similar EV leasing model with a focus on first and last mile delivery fleets. We’ve built prototypes for this as an electric bike with a swappable battery built into a cargo cart that it pulls.

I’ve also had discussions with David and Josh from Shipmates (YC S22) to pilot something like this with them.

In June 2022, the EV Integrator subsidiary of Meralco (largest power distribution company in the Philippines) reached out to us to be their supplier because their previous EV supplier had gone bankrupt.

This supplier, who we know to be Star8, used to be one of our largest competitors but went bankrupt during the pandemic.

They mentioned also that they’ve spoken to most of our competitors and they have been unable to provide adequate support for their vehicles.

We realized that because our competitors were all sellers when the market dried up they just died, but because we pivoted to our new business model we could scale down our operations and become cash flow positive to outlast anything that happens to us.

With the market conditions being as they are and the majority looking to go electric as gas prices spike, we believe that now more than ever it is crucial for us to stop bootstrapping, and get funded to go as fast as we can so we can win the market.

Two of my very good friends, Josh Supan & David Marquez, run Shipmates (YC S22) and recently got in. The stories I heard from them about how much easier it was to raise, the support and knowledge base they got from YC, and their urging me to apply pretty much sold me.

We basically started the electric vehicle industry in the Philippines and we feel that the stars have aligned in the sense that our business model achieving product market fit, experience, and the relationships we’ve built over the years have put us in the perfect position to succeed. We consider ourselves a rocket over a decade in the making, conditions are right, and (ironically) now all we need is the fuel to launch.

The internet.