You May Soon Be Able To Book A Hyundai Kona Cab From Ola And Uber
Cab aggregators in India are collectively taking the onus of adopting electric vehicles in their fleet for a cleaner commute. The procurement of EVs for the same though is restricted because of the limited offerings at present. A segment that recently came into limelight is that of the luxury electric cars and if recent reports are to be believed this is what the ride-hailing firms might be targeting. The key players involved in this race are lik...Read More
Cab aggregators in India are collectively taking the onus of adopting electric vehicles in their fleet for a cleaner commute. The procurement of EVs for the same though, is restricted because of the limited offerings at present. A segment that recently came into limelight is that of the luxury electric cars and if recent reports are to be believed, this is what the ride-hailing firms might be targeting.
The key players involved in this race to use luxury electric cars in their services are likely to be Ola, Uber and Blu Smart. These, however, will not be procuring the EVs directly and instead state-run Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) will help them out with the process.
A new report indicates that EESL will be floating a tender to procure electric luxury cars in the range of Rs 25 lakh. It will then lease out these cars to the said cab aggregators like Ola and Uber. The idea is to bring such vehicles into use in the shared mobility services.
¡°Proposals have been sent to Ola and Uber for leasing out 50 cars to each aggregator, while purely electric ride-hailing service Blu Smart has also evinced interest for such cars,¡± a person aware of the developments was cited in the report.
(Representative Image: BCCL)
For now, EESL is looking to procure a total of 200 electric cars for this. It is expected that the tender will be floated by as soon as January next year. Interestingly, not many auto makers are out with their luxury electric cars in the country as of now. With only a couple of options, EESL will likely go for the Hyundai Kona. The other option is the recently unveiled MG ZS EV.
Ola and Uber have not commented on the development but chances are that the firms will be interested in the proposal. Of course, a lot of this will depend on the figures EESL proposes for the lease. Blu Smart, on the other hand, has already shown interest, with its promoter Anmol Singh Jaggi mentioning that the company has a requirement of around 100 luxury SUVs.
Apart from the cab aggregators, EESL also expects a demand for the electric SUV from the central ministry and PSUs. In fact, several ministries recently opted for Hyundai Kona over Tata Tigor EV and Mahindra eVeritos being used since long. The switch was propelled by several complaints by the ministers using the latter electric cars for their limited range.
