Automaker Mahindra & Mahindra has entered into a partnership with Uber India to deploy electric vehicles on the US cab aggregator’s platform, beginning with a few hundred vehicles in Delhi and Hyderabad in February next year before expanding to other cities in the country.
The initial three months will be used to get the infrastructure in place for seamless trips, the two companies announced on Friday. The tieup comes close on the heels of the tieup between Tata Group and Jayem Automotives to deploy electric Nano rebadged as Jayem Neo in Delhi through Ola, Uber’s Indian rival. Significantly, the EV push in India is led by two homegrown automakers, Tata Motors and M&M, which were the top two bidders for the government’s 10,000-vehicle order. Tata Motors bagged the phase 1 and M&M, which missed out, plans to bid for the phase 2. M&M’s electric vehicles on the Uber platform will include the e2oplus hatch and the e-Verito sedan.
M&M managing director Pawan Goenka said to ET that electric vehicle adoption is clearly gaining momentum in India and the industry is at the tipping point since there is an intention of support from all stakeholders including vehicle makers, shared mobility providers and state governments. “As a pioneer, we would like to be at the forefront, leading this change towards smart and sustainable mobility. Our collaboration with Uber is an important next step to help accelerate the large-scale adoption of EV.
Madhu Kannan, chief business officer at Uber India and emerging markets, said that in line with the government’s vision, the company aims to build a more sustainable future of mobility, moving more people needing ondemand service with more efficient vehicle trips. “We see a key role in high efficiency vehicle technologies and therefore this collaboration with Mahindra & Mahindra will be beneficial for not just Uber but for our driver partners too in cities where we operate,” Kannan said.
Out of the six-seven lakh EVs sold globally at the end of 2016, India’s share was only about 2,000. However, after the execution of 10,000 vehicle orders, the domestic market will almost triple, Goenka said.
