Envoy Mobility’s senior product manager explains why spreadsheets still matter, how he migrated identity checks in a single frantic week, and what comes next for “EV-as-an-amenity.” Envoy Mobility’s senior product manager explains why spreadsheets still matter, how he migrated identity checks in a single frantic week, and what comes next for “EV-as-an-amenity.” Setting the Stage Before the pandemic, Naman Ajmera was hired at Envoy Mobility to comb through usage logs and figure out why some electric cars sat idle while others could not be booked fast enough. Five years later, he is responsible for the mobile apps, the reservation flows, the telematics stack, and the data pipes that keep Envoy’s shared EV fleets humming in dozens of American cities. Global electric-car sales topped 17 million in 2024—more than one in every five new cars sold worldwide—a reminder that infrastructure, not demand, is the emerging bottleneck in electrification. In this Q&A, Ajmera explains how a data-analyst mindset still guides his product decisions, why real-time alerts are the next big unlock for fleet efficiency, and how property managers have become unlikely allies in the race to decarbonise city travel. Q: You began as a data analyst and now run a product for Envoy’s shared-EV platform. What has stayed constant through that shift? Q: You began as a data analyst and now run a product for Envoy’s shared-EV platform. What has stayed constant through that shift? Naman Ajmera: The obsession with root-cause analysis. Whether I’m debugging a SQL query or redesigning a reservation flow, I start with, “What prevents one more successful trip?” Data just gives you the fastest feedback loop. Early on, I built a Slack bot that surfaced any booking anomaly within 30 seconds; operations could reposition cars the same evening. That single bot is still saving the team roughly 300 hours a year. Q: The International Energy Agency says electric-car sales jumped more than 25 percent last year. How does that macro surge show up in your day-to-day work? Q: The International Energy Agency says electric-car sales jumped more than 25 percent last year. How does that macro surge show up in your day-to-day work? Ajmera: Demand volatility. When 17 million EVs sell in a year, consumer expectations rise equally fast. Someone who rents a Tesla at their apartment wants the same frictionless experience as tapping a rideshare. So every quarter, we audit—sometimes rip out—legacy workflows that add even ten seconds of latency. The growth is exciting, but it punishes sloppy processes. Q: Your team once migrated identity and DMV checks to new vendors in under a week after a partner shutdown. Walk us through that scramble. Q: Your team once migrated identity and DMV checks to new vendors in under a week after a partner shutdown. Walk us through that scramble. Ajmera: We got 24 hours’ notice that our vendor was folding. Legally, we couldn’t let any new rider behind the wheel without those checks. I pulled legal, backend, iOS and Android engineers into one channel, wrote the integration spec that afternoon, and by Day 5, we were live with Clear for ID verification and Checkr for DMV reports. The lesson: small tools—Postman snippets, test harnesses—save you when the clock is melting. Q: You like the term “EV-as-an-amenity.” What does it really mean for property owners? Q: You like the term “EV-as-an-amenity.” What does it really mean for property owners? Ajmera: Think of it like installing a gym, except people pay per mile instead of a monthly fee. Buildings host the chargers and reserve parking, we supply hardware and fleet ops, and residents unlock a Polestar 2 or Lucid Air from the garage. For landlords, it’s a green-building differentiator; for tenants, it eliminates both car payments and range anxiety. Q: Shared mobility is forecast to generate up to US$ $1 trillion in annual consumer spending by 2030. How does Envoy plan to capture its slice? Q: Shared mobility is forecast to generate up to US$ $1 trillion in annual consumer spending by 2030. How does Envoy plan to capture its slice? Ajmera: Two levers: integrated software and hyper-local utilisation. The McKinsey model you’re citing shows that availability and price beat all other factors. We hit both by parking the car where you live and using predictive analytics to keep uptime above 95 percent. Our forthcoming alert engine will flag low-battery vehicles, overdue inspections, and even unusual vibration patterns before a human notices. Q: You’ve led 36 major app releases in the past 18 months. Which feature moved the needle most? Q: You’ve led 36 major app releases in the past 18 months. Which feature moved the needle most? Ajmera: Re-architecting the reservation flow. We swapped a five-screen wizard for a three-tap “Book Now” button that pre-loads licence checks and payment tokens. It bumped trip conversion by double digits and pushed our Net Promoter Score from 5.2 to 7.5 in nine months. Turns out riders value speed more than micro-customisation. Q: The EV world is full of glamorous brands—Tesla, Rivian, Lucid. How does a behind-the-scenes product manager stay motivated? Q: The EV world is full of glamorous brands—Tesla, Rivian, Lucid. How does a behind-the-scenes product manager stay motivated? Ajmera: Impact scale. If I streamline identity checks by eight seconds, that improvement compounds across tens of thousands of bookings a month. Stopping a single support ticket per car per week can save us an extra headcount over the year. Quiet fixes beat flashy headlines. Q: What worries you about the next phase of growth? Q: What worries you about the next phase of growth? Ajmera: Data fragmentation. As we add OEM APIs, payment rails, and property-management-system integrations, the risk of analytics blind spots rises. My mitigation is an obsessive approach to schema governance—and reminding the team that a missing timestamp is not “just one null,” it’s a lost insight. Q: Finally, what milestone will tell you Envoy has truly mainstreamed property-integrated mobility? Q: Finally, what milestone will tell you Envoy has truly mainstreamed property-integrated mobility? Ajmera: When a prospective tenant asks the leasing office, “Where’s the EV fleet parked?” with the same casual expectation as “Do you have Wi-Fi?” Mobility will have become infrastructure, not an amenity. And I’ll know our dashboards—and all those late-night log dives—helped get it there. This story was authored under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. This story was authored under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. This story was authored under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. This story was authored under HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. Business Blogging Program

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A Conversation with Naman Ajmera, the Quiet Architect of Property-Integrated EV Sharing

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