Mahindra sees electric vehicles in public transport, cab segment
At a time when the nation is struggling to come to grips with ever rising air pollution, vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra is engaged in a play to popularise its range of electric vehicles in public transport.
At present there is demand for in shared vehicles and corporate transportation, and even taxi aggregators, the company’s executive director, Pawan Goenka, told HT.
Lithium Urban Technologies, which owns a fleet of electric cars, purchased 200 vehicles from Mahindra. “They will use them for commute of executives, and so far these vehicles have clocked 1.2 million kms,” Goenka said.
“The business model is proven and we are looking at similar associations with other companies,” he said.
Goenka did not name other cab aggregators that are interested to have a fleet of electric vehicles, but he said that there is “high interest of the eVerito sedan in Delhi and Pune.” Any deal is yet to happen.
Breakthroughs in technology have made batteries lighter, cheaper and more energy efficient.
Mahindra is also in talks with Ola, the country’s largest taxi platform. “We will have soon have electric cars from Mahindra as cabs on our platform, also
is also building a luxury electric car under the Pininfarina (the Italian car design firm) brand, which will compete with Tesla Model S. “The good thing is we always get compared with Tesla, so that’s nice,” Goenka said. HTC
for ride-share,” an Ola spokesperson said.
Online grocer BigBasket has bought 50 eSupros vans to deliver its orders. The company might soon order more vans for all its locations across 13 cities where it operates.
According to Mahindra, maintaining and running an electric vehicle costs 80 paisa, while a gasoline vehicle costs over ₹2. In five years, Goenka said, a buyer will save enough to buy another electric car.