Spring Free EV mulls SaaS option

Spring Free EV is working to expand the fintech’s electric vehicle underwriting engine with plans to launch a software-as-a-service option for companies looking to offer similar EV fleet lease programs. “We would like to work with other companies who can leverage our platform and do some of the same things we are doing,” Tenni Theurer , co-founder and chief product officer of Spring Free EV, told Auto Finance News . “That’s how we expect that we will scale from hundreds to tens of thousands of vehicles [on the road] in a short amount of time.” Spring Free EV purchases and then rents electric vehicles (EVs) to fleet management companies, charging a monthly fee along with a per-mile fee. Customers typically sign up for one-, three- or five-year terms, co-founder and Chief Executive Sunil Paul previously told AFN . Underwriting the vehicle and customer The fintech’s EV underwriting parameters consider customer information and the the vehicle itself, Theurer said. Spring Free EV considers traditional risk metrics such as credit scores and the business health of its customers along with the data-producing capabilities of EVs. “EVs produce a lot of data. Using vehicle telematics, we built a custom software solution to look at the revenue potential of an EV both current and in the future,” Theurer said. “We look at market conditions that might impact earning potential for leases and investors.” [caption id="attachment_58329757" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] © Can Stock Photo / VadzimMashkou [/caption] The underwriting process includes reviewing customer transaction data such as mileage and number of cars requested along with basic credit risk evaluations of the business looking to rent the EVs, Theurer said. “From an EV perspective, we take in factors such as geography, type of vehicle and what the demand and pricing might look like in that market to build out a more comprehensive view of that customer and the EVs they are requesting,” she said. “That helps us determine what [vehicles] that customer qualifies for … then we can offer a lease agreement based on that evaluation from an underwriting perspective.” Many customers start with a few EV orders but come back to Spring Free EV to add vehicles to their fleets as they scale EV adoption, Theurer said. “Some are coming to us for the first time. They have an existing [internal combustion engine] fleet and they want to start the conversion, but you don’t transition [to EVs] at once,” she said. “We’re trying to understand what their growth projections look like and the timeframe. That helps us in our underwriting process to look at their business health, the underwriting criteria and the capabilities of the geography and business itself.” Spring Free EV’s underwriting engine evaluates not just the customer but the technology opportunities EVs may offer, Theurer said. Future EV technology might be able to provide analytics on safety and write vehicle commands such as the ability to start, stop and charge remotely, she said. “We want to make incremental improvements along the way [in our tech stack], but we have the foundation of this EV underwriting engine already in play,” she said. Scaling EV fleet rental The plan is to offer a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model down the road to companies that want to use Spring Free EV’s underwriting capabilities for similar programs, Theurer said, adding that the fintech aims to reduce carbon emissions by one gigaton by 2030. “Our climate mission is how do we get to the scale that we need to get to in the short amount of time that we have,” she said. “The only way we are going to be able to do that is with others who are as committed.” Spring Free EV in April secured $31 million in series A funding to double the number of EVs it has on the road by the end of the year and continue growing operations. “This year is focused on growth and putting more cars out there,” Theurer said. The Big Wheels Auto Finance Data 2023 report , the only tabulation of the top 200 auto lenders by outstandings, is available now.

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Spring Free EV mulls SaaS option

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