Each of us has had different emotional experiences while travelling with taxis - some of them good, others less so.
Still, imagine being able to call a car through an app, and find a bottle of water waiting for you inside, alongside a magazine or newspaper (why not the latest issue of Capital?), and your favorite radio station playing. The driver opens the door for you, dressed in a clean uniform. And he doesn't bother you with politics, the weather, last night's game, or any other topic that doesn't interest you. He'll even keep quiet if you don't want to talk to him.
All this and more is what the founders of Volt Taxi, Ognyan Popov and Yuliyan Mavrodiev, want to introduce with their premium taxi service. They already have 30 cars that serve Sofia's residents and visitors and more will be added soon. Aside from all the planned extras, the company will be distinguished from its competitors by its vehicles. At launch, they will be using BMW 5 Series hybrids. In the future, the possibility of adding all-electric vehicles is not ruled out. To make this possible, the company has partnered with one of the capital's two BMW dealerships, M Car Sofia and UniCredit Leasing.
The founders hope that by the end of the year, at the latest in early 2025, the company's auto park will consist of about 200 cars, and in the long term, of 400. The planned total investment could reach 40 million levs, Ognyan Popov revealed to Capital.
A boutique taxi service
Another factor, distinguishing the startup, will be the higher prices on account of the extras and more luxurious cars. Calling a Volt car will cost 1.49 levs, and the initial charge will be 3.63 levs during the day and 4.17 levs at night. Customers will be charged at 1.83 levs per kilometer (daytime) and 2.10 levs (nighttime). Downtime will be 0.59 levs regardless of the time of day.
In comparison, Yellow, one of the existing major companies, charges customers 0.99 levs per call and 2.49/2.79 levs for the initial fare. A kilometer costs 1.22 levs during the day and 1.44 levs during the evening, while downtime is 0.39 levs.
"We don't want to be a mass-market taxi company," Ognyan Popov told Capital, hence their fleet will have a maximum of 400 cars. "We want the best drivers, with the best behavior, and the customers who can afford it," he says, explaining that according to the Volt team, there are enough people who would pay between 7 and 10 levs more per ride for such a premium service.
He says that drivers will be selected with the utmost care and great attention paid to their working conditions. He reveals that, unlike other players in the market, the cars will be leased to the drivers without price increases. Moreover, because of the higher prices, they will earn more, including from tips, thanks to the well-heeled clientele. He claims that Volt's profit will come from them, and not from interest.
The investors
The idea for the new service was Mavrodiev's. He has been working on it for about five years, and Popov joined him more than two years ago. In the Commercial Register, he is listed as a managing owner of Taxi Volt, which was founded in October 2023. He is the founder of Prospecto Group, which is behind the online brochure platform Brushura.bg. In 2020, that company was acquired by the German technology group Offerista Group which is developing the same business. Mavrodiev has experience as a taxi driver, hence the desire to create a premium company in the sector.
Among the investors in the new company are PhoneArena's founder, Presian Karakostov, the man behind Grabo.bg, Trendo.bg, Gospodari.com, Opoznai.bg and 1ForFit, Velizar Velichkov, as well as the founder of the animal by-products trader SK PSD Group, Christian Demirev. Karakostov and Velichkov are also listed as members of the board of directors of Taxi Volt. Other people listed there are Viktor Nasser, the now former representative from "We Continue the Change", and Nelly Tomanova-Popova.
Is the new premium taxi service a threat to others?
According to Kalin Kokosharov, a partner at Yellow, one of the largest taxi companies in Sofia, the launch of Volt will not lead to an outflow of his company's customers. He welcomes new players in the market, as he believes they help improve the environment and service. "The market itself weeds out the successful from the unsuccessful business model," he says, adding that various taxi companies have come and gone in the 20+ years of Yellow's existence.
According to Kokosharov, although the quality of the fleet is fundamental to delivering an exemplary service, it is the drivers who are at the forefront. For him, they are the company's "most valuable asset." Hence he and the "Ucha.se" platform have had their own drivers' academy for 18 months. There, for two weeks, people are trained not on how to drive, but on the so-called soft skills that help them with communication, customer service, and handling different situations. Alongside this, future and current taxi drivers are taught digital skills for handling the equipment they use in their daily work, such as tablets and POS terminals.
The drivers of another young company, Have cars, also receive their training at Yellow's academy. That company launched two years ago initially only with a rent-a-car service of Tesla vehicles. The company's idea is to help customers who aren't sure if they want such a car by lending it to them for a "longer test drive." In addition, the company assists the ordering and importing of cars from the American company, as it has no official representation in the country.
At the end of 2023, the company also decided to launch its taxi service entirely with Tesla cars. They currently have 14 (by the end of the year there will be 30), but they will now use Yellow's brand and resources due to the "failed experiment with high prices" for a taxi service, said Stefan Mikhailov, one of the two partners in the company, for Capital. "Whether it's Tesla or Maybach, I think the Bulgarian market is not ripe for such a premium service," he said.
Mikhailov believes that Volt's success will hinge on being used for transfers, and not for taxi services. "Their prices are higher than those we had initially established but gave up on only a month later, as people are not ready to pay more," he adds. He says that when he talks to the Tesla drivers, it becomes clear that even customers from more premium neighbourhoods "pay to the last penny".
Each of us has had different emotional experiences while travelling with taxis - some of them good, others less so.
Still, imagine being able to call a car through an app, and find a bottle of water waiting for you inside, alongside a magazine or newspaper (why not the latest issue of Capital?), and your favorite radio station playing. The driver opens the door for you, dressed in a clean uniform. And he doesn't bother you with politics, the weather, last night's game, or any other topic that doesn't interest you. He'll even keep quiet if you don't want to talk to him.
