Uber has started offering electric vehicles to customers in select parts of the Delhi-NCR region and says it will expand its operations in the coming months. Electric taxis are currently only available for pre-arranged trips.
“As India’s leading mobility program, we are committed to supporting the Indian government’s emissions targets.” “In the coming months, we expect to seree more electric vehicles in Indian cities—whether they are two, three, or four-wheelers,” a spokesperson said.
The company did not say how it worked in India. many EV taxis on the platform, but insisted it is working with multiple fleet partners, OEMs, and charging infrastructure providers to “gradually build the EV business in a sustainable way” to electrify a significant portion of its fleet over the next few years . Reuters reported in 2019 that the Indian government ordered Uber and its arch-rival Ola to convert 5% of their fleets by 2022 and
40% by April 2026.
The push came amid New Delhi’s pledge to reduce dependence on oil imports and reduce costs. air pollution to meet the commitments made under the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
There are electric taxis available through the app’s Reserve feature, which allows customers to choose a time to pick up up to 30 days in advance. According to the app’s description, users can cancel their trip 60 minutes before it’s scheduled to depart for free.
In recent years, the Indian federal government and several state governments have begun offering incentives to customers and vendors to increase adoption of electric cars.
The Delhi state government, for example, says it has installed 1,000 electric vehicle charging points across the city. Also, launched the Delhi EV Policy in August 2020, as part of which he provides subsidies for the installation of charging stations. The city plans to create 18,000 charging points for electric cars over the next three years.
Ola, whose investors include SoftBank, Temasek Holdings, Hyundai Motor, and Kia, also has a separate e-mobility unit to build electric cars. The company first introduced its electric car to the market in 2009 and plans to expand into electric vehicles in 2024.
Ola has also tried to enter the electric car taxi market in India. In 2018, it launched the “Mission: Electric” program to introduce electric taxis, electric auto-rickshaws, electric buses, rooftop solar installations, chargin experiential ions and excae experiments.
Apart from Uber and Ola, Gujarat-based BluSmart Electric Mobility is also competing in the South Asian market for electric car taxis. The company, which raised $25 million from BP Ventures earlier this year and plans to raise $250 million, has an all-electric fleet that is very different from the two giants of today. It also claims to have completed over 2.5 million all-electric trips and over 900,000 app downloads since its launch in 2019.
However, BluSmart’s coverage is currently limited to Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru.
Uber has been offering electric cars in the US and Europe for some time. The San Francisco, California-based company has an Uber Green program to offer electric cars in its fleet and aims to become a zero-emission platform by 2020. It has also set aside $800 million to encourage drivers on its platform to use electric cars by 2025.
Source: Tech crunch
