Spark is a short-term electric car rental company that was launched in Vilnius, Lithuania, in 2016. Since then, it has grown to become one of the largest electric car fleet owner in the country, offering its services in multiple Lithuanian cities. The company has also expanded to Bulgaria and Romania, growing its fleet even further.
Spark approached us roughly six months before its launch with just an idea:
- Private customers would use mobile apps to sign up for, find, and unlock cars.
- Business customers would manage their accounts on the web, providing their employees access to an emission-free mode of transportation around Lithuania.
- The Spark team would handle the fleet management and maintenance through a state-of-the-art administrator panel.
The essence of the project:
Initially, the company purchased a small fleet of electric cars to test the integration and build the solution. Back then, it was a novel concept, with only a handful of similar businesses worldwide, and there was no best practice for designing such an experience for the users.
Moreover, figuring out what maintenance toolkit might be necessary to maintain a business like this was even more tricky.
During the discovery phase, we extensively discussed various questions, including whether we should build an integration to monitor windshield washer fluid in real time or whether the charging of electric cars should be a recurring overnight process instead of a continuous first-in-first-out process.
Preparation concluded within the first eight weeks, resulting in extremely detailed clickable wireframes for the mobile application and the administrators’ environment. We managed launch the project on such a tight deadline by sorting out all the details before the development started. This thorough preparation made it easy to budget the work and ensure the code was of high quality.
We were thrilled to launch on time and without any technical glitches. Needless to say, a solution that maintains a fleet of real cars rented out to real people has to work 24 / 7 and there is no room for bugs.
We are proud to say that the core of our work served the company for many years without major rewrites and was successfully reused in other countries.
The app has seen a couple of redesigns suggested by changing UI trends. We provided post-launch support for multiple years until Spark grew as a business and managed to build an in-house IT team that continues to run the project.
Services provided:
- UX wireframing and architecture.
- UI design of the app.
- iOS and Android app development.
- Integration with individual cars in the fleet.
- Admin environment development.
- B2B self-service area development.
- Ongoing post-launch support and implementation of new features.
Project result:
It was a perfect example of a well-planned and executed hardware startup. The solid foundation allowed the project to grow into a successful business operating a fleet of hundreds of cars internationally.
