Chennai: Ola’s subsidiary company – Ola Electric Private Limited has 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 were 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 one 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 two-wheeler and three-wheeler services amongst others, the release from the firm said.
Ola’s policy is in line with the government who has propagated electric vehicles use for commercial activities, it added.
“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,” co-founder and CEO, Ola, Bhavish Aggarwal, said in the release.
Head of Ola Electric Mobility, Anand Shah, 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, which is the utility vehicle maker’s answer to tech-based electric mobility and will rival already established names including Ola and Uber.
Mahindra had earlier tied up with Ola earlier to run a pilot project for electric mobility in Nagpur.