Spring Free EV Project making Electric vehicles affordable

Update

Background

The Spring Free EV Project reduces electric vehicle costs using a new idea we’ve dubbed a “Mileage Purchase Agreement." Combined with fin tech and smart tax management, we deliver great projected returns to investors and provide affordable EVs to fleet managers.

The project was initiated by Sunil Paul and Spring Ventures in 2019.

Stay updated on the Spring Free EV Project

What is an MPA?

There is a FAQ on this website and a short description on Sunil's blog.

What was the contest about?

We ran a contest to get to product-market fit on the MPA idea. The top winner of the contest was Flux EV

Read more on this website for details on other contestants and background on the contest.

Climate impact of MPAs

We asked, "how big does the MPA idea need to get to have an impact on climate change?"

A blog on greenhouse gas impacts of the MPA

The spreadsheet model used for the blog above

Whats next?

The next phase is to prove the basics of the MPA idea by putting it into the marketplace.

We are working with companies to field MPAs for consumers and fleets.

We are recruiting investors to provide project financing for companies that field MPAs.

We are interested in going deeper on the climate and policy implications.

Stay in touch

Sign up below to be on the mailing list for occasional update. You can also follow Sunil Paul: @sunilpaul on Twitter and linkedin.com/in/sunilpaul on Linkedin.

Going the mailing list

Below is the legacy website from the Contest. I will be arch

Join us April 2 8am-11am Pacific Time

Livestream on Zoom https://zoom.us/j/4154115555

14 Teams From Around the World

We have many teams trying different approaches to the MPA concept. Everything from charging infrastructure in India to consumers in the US to renewable energy credits in Australia.

Competing for the Best Product-Market Fit

Are your customers raving about you on social media? Share their great stories to help turn potential customers into loyal ones.

The Judges

Jigar Shah, President and Co-founder, Generate Capital, and founder of the first solar PPA company, Sun Edison
Billy Parish, CEO and Co-founder, Solar Mosaic, largest solar loan provider in the US.
Andrew Beebe, General Partner at Obvious Ventures and former executive at Suntech, the largest solar company
Claire Tomkins, CEO and Co-founder, Future Family, pioneer in applying fintech to fertility.

Finalists

Summary (randomized list):

Coalition for Clean Air https://www.ccair.org - California, US

Bruce Melgar

Jason Rolf - UK

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-rolf-25598719/

Tesloop https://www.tesloop.com/ - California, US

Rahul Sonnad https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahulio/

Pacific Fleet Charging - California, US

Will Brieger (https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-brieger-39289868/)

Anish Kumar Sinha (https://www.linkedin.com/in/anish-kumar-sinha-ucd/),

Bill Westerfield (https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-westerfield-0b792454/)

Nikola https://www.nikolaapp.com - California, US

David Hodge https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidwhodge/

Nikhil Mhatre - India

linkedin.com/in/nikhil-mhatre-a69837129

Anish Kumar Sinha, Will Brieger, Bill Westerfield - California, US

Will Brieger (https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-brieger-39289868/)

Anish Kumar Sinha (https://www.linkedin.com/in/anish-kumar-sinha-ucd/),

Bill Westerfield (https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-westerfield-0b792454/)

Flux EV https://www.flux-ev.com - California, US

Andrew Krulewitz https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewkrulewitz/

Royale http://www.goroyale.app - California, US

Ian Gardner – Founder/CEO https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-gardner-8a67047/

Danielle Grossman – Dir. Ops https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellegrossman/

Chris Miles – Dir. Product https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophermiles1/

For more details on the teams see the Google doc linked below:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EFtiCazSTw3qB6hOWWLfFRlCBbUob02-Iwl5i7Q2TGk/edit?usp=sharing

Auto finance panel livestream

JOIN MARCH 27 10AM

A panel of innovators with deep experience in automotive and other finance will be on the Zoom channel.

https://zoom.us/j/4154115555

Panelists:

Chris Ballinger, founder and CEO of MOBI (https://dlt.mobi), a foundation pursuing blockchain solutions for mobility that has the support of many of most important companies in the automotive ecosystem. Chris has had many relevant roles in finance and mobility including 13 years as CFO of Toyota Financial Services.

Casey Harmon, co-founder of a new startup in the automotive industry. He spent five years as SVP of Corporate Development at a specialty automotive finance company, West Lake Financial (https://www.westlakefinancial.com) and almost 12 years at Toyota Financial Services.

Jigar Shah, co-founder and Partner of Generate Capital (https://generatecapital.com), a specialty finance company that specializes in energy and sustainability. Jigar is an innovator with deep experience in finance. Notably, he started Sun Edison, the first company to create solar as a service.

About the contest

Speed EV adoption with the Mileage Purchase Agreement (MPA)

Accelerating the deployment of electric vehicles (EVs) is one of the most powerful ways to solve the climate crisis. EVs are expensive to purchase, but cheaper to operate than gas and diesel cars and trucks. The simple solution is to provide cash up front in exchange for payments as the vehicle is used, an idea called a Mileage Purchase Agreement.

The Spring Free EV Contest is a project to increase the pace of EV sales using a Mileage Purchase Agreement (MPA).

Contestants will compete to validate or invalidate the product-market fit for the MPA idea. The most likely way we anticipate they will do so is by signing up consumers or fleets to a version of the program. The best evidence of product-market fit will win $10,000.

If we achieve product-market fit, Spring Ventures will provide up to $300,000 of debt capital to test the idea. Like other fintech innovations, if we can prove the economics for a few hundred vehicles, we can raise money for a few thousand, then tens of thousands, and ultimately millions of vehicles.

Spring Ventures and Sunil Paul

The contest is sponsored by Spring Ventures, the investment platform for Sunil Paul, the pioneering Silicon Valley entrepreneur who invented ridesharing, p2p carsharing, and spam control.

Origins of the MPA and this Contest

Sunil Paul developed the idea for the MPA over several years, inspired by the success of power purchase agreements (PPAs) in unlocking the value of solar power. He published an open call for entrepreneurs to pursue the idea on Linkedin on Nov. 12, 2019. Seeing interest among entrepreneurs, he published an open document to flesh out the idea and solicit feedback from the community.

This contest is the next stage in the evolution of the MPA idea. You can be a part of this story to dramatically change the course electric vehicle adoption and help solve the climate crisis.

Find out more