Charging platforms and apps play important roles. When a rider can see nearby chargers, live availability, connector types and prices in one reliable interface, charging becomes just another manageable task in their workflow rather than a risky detour, writes Akshay Shekhar, Co-Founder & CEO of Kazam.
The gig economy runs on EVs. But what does the charging backbone really look like?
Food, groceries, medicines, cabs, cargo – much of India’s urban life is now powered by gig workers on 2W/3W such as bikes, scooters, rickshaws plus taxi and fleet drivers. Increasingly, these wheels are electric. The question is no longer “Will gig work go electric?” but “Can charging infrastructure keep up with how gig workers actually move and earn?”
Here’s a ground-up look at the charging ecosystem for the gig economy – and what still needs fixing.
Gig EVs don’t live in showrooms, they live on the road
Gig workers work long, irregular hours across peaks, with earnings tied directly to how many trips or deliveries they complete. They often lack reserved home parking or personal chargers, especially in informal settlements, rented homes or dense colonies. Any charging solution that forces long, unpaid charging stops is effectively a pay cut. So for this segment, “convenient charging” really means “minimal disruption to earning time”.
Three charging worlds: home, hubs and on-the-go
Today, gig workers tap into three overlapping charging “worlds”:
- Home / residential charging
- Some partners do manage to charge at home or in their society parking, which works well for small-battery 2W if the building permits it and wiring is safe.
- Fleet or platform hubs
- Large aggregators and fleet operators are setting up captive charging at dark stores, delivery hubs, taxi stands and depots, allowing scheduled top-ups during shift changes, loading or driver breaks.
- Public and semi-public charging
- Standalone public chargers, fuel pumps, metro stations, malls and mixed-use complexes are used for opportunistic top-ups between jobs.
All three layers matter – and how well they connect, digitally and physically, shapes whether a gig worker’s day feels smooth or stressful.
Time is literally money: fast is about downtime, not just kW
A 40-minute charge at home is fine for a private owner; for a rider paid per order it’s 40 minutes of zero earnings. For the gig economy, charging is about downtime per stop, not just power rating.
Two patterns stand out: light vehicles (2W/3W) often use slower chargers more frequently but during “natural breaks” like loading or lunch, so the stop feels less expensive. Heavier use cases (taxis, some 3W cargo) lean towards faster DC or swapping where available, because quick turnarounds keep utilisation – and payouts – high. Any infrastructure plan for gig-heavy corridors that ignores this time–earnings equation will see poor adoption.
Access and discovery: you can’t use the charger you can’t see
For many gig workers, the barrier isn’t just “Is there a charger?” but also: Do I know where it is, will it be free, can I pay with UPI or my usual wallet, and is it compatible with my vehicle?
Charging platforms and apps are key here. When a rider can see nearby chargers, live availability, connector types and prices in one reliable interface, charging becomes just another manageable task in their workflow rather than a risky detour. Platforms like Kazam, which aggregate multiple chargers and locations into a single, map-like view, become both navigation and infrastructure for the gig economy, not just a back-end tool for operators.
Economics on both sides: drivers and station owners
For chargers in gig-heavy zones to survive, driver and station economics both have to work.
- For drivers, tariffs must make sense versus per-kilometre or per-trip payouts. Predictable, transparent pricing usually matters more than the absolute lowest rate.
- For station owners and CPOs, utilisation has to go beyond a handful of four-wheelers to cover capex, rent and energy. That’s why clustering near gig hotspots (dark stores, markets, transit nodes) and enabling multi-tenant use (multiple platforms, independent riders, taxis) is critical.
Smart routing, pricing and partnerships can ensure a single charger serves multiple fleets and freelancers through one interoperable platform.
Swapping, parking and hybrid models
In many cities, 2W and 3W gig workers also rely on battery swapping alongside plug-in charging. Swapping cuts downtime but needs dense, well-maintained swap networks, standardised (or platform-specific) battery formats and robust digital systems for tracking usage, billing and battery health.
Parking is another hidden constraint. If a neighbourhood has chargers but no safe, accessible parking, gig workers simply won’t use them. The most effective designs combine safe parking, basic amenities (toilets, water, seating) and well-positioned chargers that don’t disrupt traffic.
Why interoperable, platform-agnostic infrastructure matters
A typical gig worker might deliver for one app in the morning, another in the evening and drive for a ride-hailing platform on weekends. Charging infrastructure locked to a single corporate ecosystem doesn’t fit this reality.
Truly interoperable, platform-agnostic charging – where any verified rider can plug in, pay digitally and move on – is what makes EVs viable tools of work, not just branded assets. That means common connector standards, shared digital rails for authentication and payments, and operators capable of serving multiple fleets and individuals without friction.
This is where companies like Kazam come in: turning a patchwork of chargers and locations into a usable, accessible charging network for everyone – including the gig workforce that increasingly keeps Indian cities running on electric wheels.