Ola kicks off pilot of its electric mass mobility project in Nagpur

It has partnered with carmaker Mahindra and the Government of India for the project

Taxi aggregator Ola has kicked off a pilot project in Nagpur to demonstrate mass electric mobility, in partnership with the Centre and carmaker Mahindra. Ola will have an electric fleet of 200 vehicles, including taxis, buses, e-rickshaws and autos. 

The pilot project will commence with 100 of Mahindra’s e2o Plus hatchbacks. The rest will be sourced from Tata Motors, Kinetic, BYD and TVS.

“India has the need as well as the potential to set a global example on electric adoption to power its mobility requirements. We believe that electric mobility in a multi-modal format will be a key to realise our mission of building mobility for billions,” said Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO of Ola.

Ola said it has invested Rs 50 crore in procuring electric vehicles and setting up 50 charging points across four strategic locations in Nagpur. 

“There is an urgent need to re-think and revisit transport infrastructure and fuel dependency. It is heartening to see Indian companies such as Ola and Mahindra taking the government's vision forward and in building a strong ecosystem for sustainable mobility. I look forward to working with them to make the 2030 vision of reducing carbon emission a reality,” said Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari.

The Union minister, along with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, inaugurated the country’s first multi-modal electric vehicle project at the Nagpur Airport Complex. With this, Maharashtra has become the first state to provide various incentives to e-taxis.

“We are engaged in initial talks with Japanese investment giant SoftBank for loans at low interest rates for a green project. We want to introduce 200,000 electric buses for public transport,” Gadkari said.

Ola has raised $230 million from Softbank to gain an advantage over global rival Uber. While Uber is working on self-driving cars that will eventually make drivers redundant, feasibility of such a move in the near future is slim.

Ola is looking to gain an edge with electric mobility that will reduce the cost of hailing rides and reduce pollution. For SoftBank Chairman Masayoshi Son, renewable energy and zero emissions mobility are two bets close to his heart.

In December last year, Son, in an interaction with the Economic Times, said he wished to “give away a million electric cars made in India for free to Ola drivers.” Son is also investing on promoting solar energy in India jointly with Bharti.

While electric vehicles are still expensive than their gas-guzzling counterparts, Mahindra Electric, which produces the e2o, said their use as cabs made more sense. For consumers, it would take an average of five years to recover the extra cost of buying an electric vehicle, but when used as cabs that  timeline gets reduced to just two years. Further, as battery costs drop globally, electric vehicles will become more cost competitive.