Energy crunch fuels car pool growth in India

Rising fuel prices triggered by the Middle East war are driving a sharp increase in carpooling, with a ride-sharing platform reporting a surge in new users seeking cheaper ways to travel. The world’s largest carpooling platform Bla Bla Car said soaring energy costs have pushed 600,000 additional drivers onto the app this year — 20 per cent more than initially projected — as commuters look to offset the rising cost of fuel. In India, its single biggest market with more than 20 million users in 2025, the number of passengers has increased by 40pc since the start of the US-Israeli airstrikes against Iran on February 28. Last year, the global carpooling leader posted record-breaking figures in the world’s most populous country India — outpacing Brazil with 19m users and France with 7m, according to Benjamin Retourne, the platform’s product director. This trend has been more pronounced in countries where fuel price increases driven by the war have been sudden and significant, combined with limited government support, such as in France. The platform works by connecting drivers and passengers willing to travel together between cities to share costs, with the app in most of its 21 operating nations taking a 20pc commission. Saves fuel Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier in May urged the country’s 1.4bn citizens to save fuel by making greater use of carpooling and public transport. India imports approximately half of its crude oil via the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran effectively closed in retaliation to US-Israeli strikes launched in February. Retourne said a decade ago, when BlaBlaCar first launched in India, even “after two or three years, it just wasn’t catching on”. The company, founded in France in 2006, therefore stopped investing in the world’s fastest growing economy but kept its application running from its Paris headquarters, unlike many large foreign groups that outsourced their services to India. Growth finally began to pick up after the Covid-19 pandemic