Ola’s subsidiary company- Ola Electric Private Limited today announced that it has raised Rs 400 crore in the first round of its bidding raising the competition for Mahindra’s Glyd and Uber. Led by two of Ola’s earliest backers, Tiger Global and Matrix India, the company will be now be headed by Anand Shah and Ankit Jain, who was involved with Ola in the past, a release said.
Ola Electric Pvt. Ltd. was envisaged under ‘Mission: Electric’ which was meant as a platform to bring together driver-partners, cities, vehicle manufacturers, battery companies, and others with the aim of making sustainable technologies cost-effective and viable in daily mobility. The company was established to enable Ola’s electric mobility pilot program in Nagpur. Ola had earlier announced that it will bring 1 million Electric Vehicles on Indian roads by 2022 as a part of the mission.
As of now, Ola Electric is running several pilots to deploy electric vehicles and charging solutions, including battery swapping stations, electric 2-wheeler and 3-wheeler services amongst others, the release said.
“India can leapfrog problems of pollution and energy security by moving to electric mobility, create millions of new jobs and economic opportunity, and lead the world,” Bhavish Aggarwal, Co-founder & CEO, Ola said in the release.
Ola’s policy is in line with the government who has propagated electric vehicles use for commercial activities, it added.
Pointing out the problems faced by electric mobility industry, Anand Shah, Head of Ola Electric Mobility said, “The first problem to solve in electric mobility is charging: users need a dependable, convenient, and affordable replacement for the petrol pump. By making electric easy for commercial vehicles that deliver a disproportionate share of kilometres travelled, we can jumpstart the electric vehicle revolution”.
Previously, Mahindra had also launched mobility solutions Glyd. Glyd is Mahindra’s answer to tech-based electric mobility and will rival already established names including Ola and Uber. Mahindra had also tied up with Ola earlier to run a pilot project for electric mobility in Nagpur. Both of them have moved on to apply the learnings of the industry in reality now.
Source: financialexpress.com