Ola to roll out 10,000 EVS in next 1 year
BENGALURU: Ola, the cab-hailing service that is in talks to raise at least $1 billion in fresh funds, will introduce a fleet of 10,000 electric vehicles (EVS) over the next 12 months.
On Monday, Ola, run by ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd, said that as part of its Mission: Electric initiative, it would look to deploy 1 million electric vehicles on the roads by 2021.
As part of its latest launch, Ola will mostly deploy three-wheeler vehicles, or what the company calls e-rickshaws and electric auto-rickshaws.
“Three-wheelers are a vital means of transportation and a source of livelihood for millions of people every day. It also repre- sents an immediate opportunity to improve outcomes for all stakeholders, while reducing pollution across towns and cities,” said Bhavish Aggarwal, founder and chief executive officer of Ola.
In an interview in December 2016, Masayoshi Son, chairman of Softbank Group, which is the largest investor in Ola, had said that the cab-hailing start-up might introduce a fleet of one million electric cars in partnership with an electric vehicle maker and the government.
In an interview in May last year, Aggarwal had said that the start-up would introduce fully electric cabs on a pilot basis in major cities in India.
Last month in Nagpur, Ola launched a pilot project to test a fleet of its electric vehicles. Ola had also launched its first electric vehicle project in Nagpur in May last year.
“Less than a year ago, we launched India’s first multimodal electric pilot in Nagpur. After more than 4 million electric kilometres travelled and many lessons learned, we are significantly expanding our commitment to electrify mobility in India. Ola leads by example, and we look forward to working with state governments and other partners to introduce accessible, affordable, and sustainable mobility solutions at scale.”
So far, electric vehicles have not taken off in a big way in India because of the high cost of manufacturing and the lack of sufficient infrastructure such as battery-charging stations—despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious 2030 goal of making all new vehicles electric by then.
Ola has also encountered initial struggles to get its electric vehicle project up and running. However, that situation is expected to change for the better over the coming months and years as large investors such as Softbank place massive bets on the electric vehicle sector.