How to Make an EV Rental App

Electric vehicle rental is becoming more and more popular. This is a convenient and fast way to travel around the city for short distances or get a car for that particular situation when you need it.

Despite the fact that this is now a popular innovation and in cities you can definitely find a couple of rental services, mobile app development is a challenging project. Why? Because there’ll be a lot of things that require your attention. To name a few, you’ll need to:

• create a clear & catchy UI/UX design
• implement all the necessary features
• ensure a stable and quick data exchange between the mobile app and the EV fleet
• set up an administrative panel so that you can track all vehicles and monitor their technical condition.

As complicated as it may sound, don’t worry. In this article, we’ll tell you in detail about the app development process for creating an electric vehicle rental application. We’ll also take a quick glance at possible challenges you can face and special features linked to different business models.

Let's start!

 
 

📱 Basic Features of Electric Vehicle Rental Applications

In this article, we’ll look at two main types of rental apps: electric car rental apps and electric scooter and bike rental apps. Even though they may seem similar, there are a bunch of differences in terms of features & technologies when it comes to software development.

Thus, in this section, we’ll talk about the basic features of both applications and then take a closer look at their distinctive features.

 
 

Sign Up

Creating an account is the best way to save personal data for both the user and the application. An account nowadays is like a barista in a coffee shop near your house that you go to every day: he knows your name, what to advise you, and that you love coffee and pistachio macaroons.

On this screen, users should be able to view their previous trips and analyze their costs, and distance. But in addition, you can add more indicators like this:

• list of rented vehicles
• list of previous rental locations
• a map showing the locations of past rentals, as well as the date and time of each rental
• rating system for each rental, as well as the ability to leave reviews
• a list of upcoming rentals, allowing users to quickly view and manage their upcoming bookings.

These few numbers can make the user engaged in your application, and as the numbers increase, they’ll use your service more and more often. Moreover, that’s the right place to introduce some gamification features. For example, you may award badges for in-app achievements linked to traveled distance, total time on the road, etc.

From the management side, keeping a history of trips for each vehicle will help you to:

• keep track of all vehicles
• monitor charging
• follow the maintenance of the electric vehicle
• track profitability.

 
 

📊 How your EV Business Model Affects the Technical Side of your App

Before developing an application for renting an electric vehicle, you should consider different technical challenges that may come with your business model.

Below we described key things that are worth your attention regarding different business models:

What information should be displayed about the ride?

• price
• mileage
• ride duration
• ride map.

An important part of this feature is the car smart lock used to complete the trip. To make it work flawlessly, you need to configure the connection with the server in a way that it would immediately block the car after the completion of the ride. This can be easily done thanks to special APIs. We will talk about them in Tech Stack, so keep reading!

 
 

🚲 Electric Bicycle/E-Scooter App Development: Special Features

So, let’s talk about the special features of an e-scooter and bike rental app. Why are they important and how will they help you meet your e-scooter business goals?

 
 

QR code / ID scanner integration

This is a basic feature thanks to which the user will get access to the e-scooter. Therefore, your application must have access to the camera and the ability to scan the QR code. Step by step, it works like this:

1. Registered user scans a QR code.
2. The application sends a signal to the server with the ID of the electric scooter.
3. The server approves the request and sends an alert about the availability of the electric scooter to the application.
4. Electric scooter is unlocked and ready for the ride.

In order to implement this feature, it’s enough to use an existing third-party solution. Talk to your developers and choose one that matches your business needs.

 
 

Battery life indicator

The user must be aware of the e-scooter battery сharge they want to use — it should be enough to get to the desired point.

In addition, it’ll help you control the battery level of all scooters, charge them in time and prevent the batteries from wearing out.

Keeping track of all the important metrics is not as difficult as you might think, thanks to Battery Management Systems. This special electronic system is found in all electric vehicles.

BMS for electric vehicles is responsible for monitoring and managing batteries, ensuring the health of battery cells, and supplying power to vehicle systems. This system monitors the state of charge and manages battery optimization through cell balancing, which increases battery life in the long run. When the battery is being charged, the EV’s battery management system determines how much current can be allowed in the individual cells. The BMS also helps to indicate and show the driver the actual state of charge of the battery.

 
 

Distance meter

The cost of a ride on your e-scooter depends on your business model: what price of unlocking the e-scooter you have (if any), and whether you charge for the time of use or the traveled distance.

To calculate the distance that the user has traveled, an odometer is used (this is a special device that measures the distance; it can be mechanical or electrical). In order to integrate it into e-scooter apps, you can use various libraries or APIs depending on the programming language.

 
 

⚙️ How to Enable Hardware Features of an E-Scooter Sharing App

To enable the hardware features of your e-scooter mobile app, you’ll need to make sure that the hardware components on the EV are properly connected and functioning. This may involve installing sensors, GPS modules, and other components that are necessary for the app to communicate with the EV and track its location or other parameters. You may also need to make sure that the EV’s software is up to date and configured properly to work with the app. Let’s take a look at all the options below.

 
 

Anti-theft and anti-vandalism alarm

Anti-theft and anti-vandalism systems on any electric vehicle are security measures designed to prevent unauthorized use or damage to your EV. These alarms may use sensors to detect that the electric vehicle has been tampered with or moved without authorization. You can also set up an alert system for your admin panel or security service.

Let's take a closer look at what alarms you can use to secure your electric vehicle:

1. Motion sensors: detect the movement of an electric vehicle. Can trigger an alarm.
2. Vibration sensors: detect when the scooter is strongly shaking or vibrating. Can trigger an alarm when suspicious activity is detected.
3. GPS: uses satellite technology to track location. It sends a notification of suspicious activity to the administrative panel.
4. Immobilizers: disable the engine or other components of an electric vehicle if it’s driven without permission.
5. Alarms: use loud sirens to attract the attention of people on the street and disorientate the thief.

In order not to connect all these alarms manually, you can use the services of ready-made services:

The main challenge for you will be to collect and customize the display of all important information on one screen. In addition, it should be convenient for the administrator, because they perform one of the important jobs in the electric vehicle rental business: monitor, analyze, and solve the problems of users and the vehicles themselves.

 
 

📈 Business-related Challenges when Developing an EV Rental App

Apart from the software development itself, you’ll have to consider a few business-related challenges to solve. As we mainly focus on technical expertise, we won’t go too much into detail. Yet, these challenges seem important to mention so you have a full picture of what a “develop an EV rental app” journey looks like :)

 
 

Personal data privacy compliance

Typically, the documents that need to be uploaded to the electric car rental app include identification (driver’s license, passport), proof of address (such as a utility bill or bank statement), and a driver’s license selfie. Some companies also require insurance.

All personal information and processing must comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which is a European Union (EU) regulation that allows the secure collection and processing of personal data for lawful uses. In the context of the electric car rental application, the GDPR ensures that customers’ personal data is kept safe and protected, and that they have the right to access, correct, and delete data at any time.

You can read more about this in our article:

 
 

💡 Takeaways

An electric vehicle rental app will give your business the opportunity to grow, be competitive, attract new customers and increase revenue.

Well, let’s summarize all the main points that shouldn’t be forgotten during the mobile app development of an electric vehicle:

• Get all the necessary documents for doing business and insure it.
• Think about basic features for your business model.
• Thanks to key features, make your application useful and understandable for the user, but don’t overload it.
• Provide a fast connection to the server so that the processing of any request doesn’t take much time.
• Set up a convenient administrative panel to manage and analyze data.
• Pay special attention to hardware features, connect all sensors on vehicles and protect your EV fleet from unpleasant situations.