Cab aggregator Ola, in partnership with country's only electric carmaker Mahindra Electric, has initiated an electric vehicle project in Nagpur, under which Ola will operate close to 200 electric vehicles on its app.
Under the project, Ola will have a 100 units of Mahindra's e2o Plus vehicles as part of its fleet. Apart from cars, other vehicles such as e-buses, e-rickshaws and e-autos will also be offered by the company. These vehicles will be sourced from companies such as Tata Motors, Kinetic, BYD, TVS and others.
There will be over 50 charging points set up across four strategic locations in Nagpur. Ola, along with Mahindra, will invest in training and educating driver partners on maintenance and use of in-car technology, according to a joint statement.
The project will be vital in promoting the government's push for electric mobility and shifting to an all-electric market by 2030. Shared mobility services are widely seen as a key volume driver for electric vehicles, which at present constitute a miniscule portion of the total passenger vehicle segment.
In fact, at a recent press briefing, Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra said, "Working in partnerships with mobility service providers such as taxi aggregators is important. The biggest use of vehicles will come when they are used for commercial purposes. The more you run the more you save because the combined fuel consumption is very less."
Last year, Ola's lead investor SoftBank had expressed plans to introduce a million electric cars by the end of this decade in a tie-up with an electric vehicle maker and the government.