Home » Blog » Batteries, Trust, and Small Workshops: EV Doctor CEO Shubham Mishra’s Vision for a Sustainable EV Market

When we talk about India’s electric vehicle revolution, the spotlight is usually on big cities and flashy new EV models. But the real test of this transition is happening in smaller towns, where everyday riders and local workshops struggle with invisible battery problems and limited tools to fix them. That’s where Shubham Mishra steps in. As the founder of Battery Ok Technologies, he created EV Doctor, a smart, portable diagnostic tool that helps mechanics identify battery issues in just minutes. His mission is simple but powerful: save customers money, build trust in small garages, and give local businesses a fighting chance in the fast-changing EV market.

In this candid conversation with Brydgework Consultants, Shubham opens up about the challenges, the wins, and why fixing batteries might just be as important as selling EVs.

What specific problems in EV battery servicing, particularly in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, led you to conceive EV Doctor, and how did you validate that these were worth solving?

The biggest problem was that battery issues were invisible. In smaller cities, a mechanic couldn’t tell if a battery was weak, abused, or simply dead. So, either the customer paid for a full replacement, or the battery kept failing on the road. Both were painful.

I spent months sitting in workshops, watching this frustration play out. That’s when I realized that if we could give these workshops a way to diagnose batteries in just 15 minutes, it would save money, build trust, and give them an edge.

The validation was simple: every workshop I spoke to said, “If this works, I’ll use it tomorrow.”

From your market experience, what are the three biggest non-technical hurdles MSME workshops face in offering reliable EV servicing, and how did you address them in your business model?

Key Challenges

• Awareness: Most didn’t even know batteries could be tested scientifically.
• Trust: Customers thought workshops were guessing.
• Economics: Thin margins made them risk-averse.

Our Solution: EV Doctor™

We designed EV Doctor to directly hit these pain points:

• Branded reliable reports to build credibility.
• Simple training so mechanics could explain results confidently.
• Smart pricing where just a handful of tests paid for the device.

Beyond diagnostics technology, what operational challenges, such as supply chain gaps, workforce training, and customer trust, did you encounter while deploying EV Doctor in Tier 2 and Tier 3 locations?

Honestly, logistics and people were bigger hurdles than tech. Shipping to remote towns was unpredictable, and many mechanics had never worked with digital tools before.

We made EV Doctor “idiot-proof”: Bluetooth-based, offline-first, with app instructions and lifetime free updates.

Over time, when customers saw that two different workshops gave the same test report, that consistency started building real trust.

EV Doctor delivers diagnostics in under 15 minutes with high accuracy. How did you design the system to work effectively in small, resource-constrained workshops without sacrificing performance?

The mantra was “design for chaos”. Assume there’s no internet, no clean workbench, and very little patience.

That’s why EV Doctor is lightweight, portable, and doesn’t rely on external infrastructure. The accuracy comes from embedding physics-based algorithms that run locally, so workshops get lab-grade results without needing a lab.

Traditional service centers often resist new technology due to perceived cost, complexity, or fear of disruption. What concrete steps did you take to encourage adoption and ensure smooth integration into existing workflows?

We never sold EV Doctor as “new tech”. Instead, we told mechanics: “You already know what’s wrong. This machine just proves it on paper.” That shifted it from a threat to a tool of empowerment.

We also ran live demo camps and put up “EV Doctor Tested” stickers at workshops. Suddenly, customers started asking, “Do you have an EV Doctor?” and mechanics who didn’t felt left out.

That peer pressure worked better than any sales pitch.

Can you share a success story where a small workshop or fleet operator significantly improved operational efficiency, revenue, or customer satisfaction using EV Doctor?

There’s a workshop in Jodhpur I’ll never forget. A fleet of EV scooters kept coming back with heating complaints. The mechanic used an EV Doctor and found that nearly half the batteries were genuinely weak.

Instead of wasting money on trial-and-error fixes, the fleet operator got replacements approved. Within two months, that mechanic became the go-to expert in town. His customer base doubled, not because of flashy marketing but because people trusted the EV Doctor report in his hand.

In markets where margins are thin, how do you structure pricing, financing, or ROI communication so that MSMEs see EV Doctor as a profitable investment rather than a cost burden?

We made the math simple. One test costs the customer ₹150–300. A workshop does about 20 tests a week, and the device pays for itself in under a month.

We also remind fleet operators: avoiding even one unnecessary battery replacement saves tens of thousands of rupees. That’s when they stop seeing it as an expense and start seeing it as a money-saving, trust-building machine.

Where do you see the biggest disconnect between India’s EV policy framework and the day-to-day operational realities faced by MSMEs, and what changes could close this gap?

Policies today focus on selling more EVs, not sustaining them. In the field, MSMEs struggle with warranty disputes, fake batteries, and zero support on diagnostics.

If policy made independent diagnostics mandatory for warranty claims and second-hand battery sales, it would instantly formalize the market. It’s a small regulatory tweak with a massive impact.

Beyond servicing, how can MSMEs leverage EV Doctor for new revenue streams such as battery resale assessments, insurance facilitation, or warranty claim processing?

Workshops are already expanding into these areas. With EV Doctor, they can:

• Test old batteries for reuse in solar or backup storage.
• Provide certified reports for insurance claims.
• Help customers fight warranty battles with OEMs by showing unbiased diagnostics.

This transforms a small garage into a multi-service energy hub, far more profitable than just fixing punctures and brakes.

How can consulting firms like Brydgework, working closely with MSMEs in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, support technology companies like BatteryOK in overcoming operational bottlenecks, expanding adoption, and building sustainable market presence?

The biggest help would be bridging scale and trust. Consulting firms can:

• Standardize training so workshops in small towns feel confident using EV Doctor.
• Build financing schemes so workshops aren’t scared of upfront costs.
• Advocate policy changes that recognize diagnostics as a formal layer in EV servicing.

At the end of the day, startups like us can innovate fast, but scaling to India’s heartland needs trusted partners who know the ground realities as well as we know the technology.