Ola will soon deploy 10,000 premium electric vehicles (EVs) for users on its cab-booking platform.
Second attempt
It is in the final stages of rolling out the pilot programme.
This isn’t the first time it is experimenting with the idea.
In 2018, it ran a similar project in Nagpur, but shut it down after it failed to achieve success.
Work in progress
However, when it comes to the latest attempt the company hasn’t shared further details.
It is working out the sourcing of the vehicles, the charging infrastructure and based on the pilot’s results, it will decide when to formally launch the service on its app.
Customers and drivers air grievances
The latest development comes at a time when Ola, along with Uber, has received several customer complaints about poor services, ride cancellations, surge pricing, among others.
Driver partners on the two platforms have raised their own issues regarding a decline in their earnings over the past few months.
Breaking the duopoly
BluSmart is the largest on-demand EV fleet operator in the country and has taken advantage of the other companies’ struggles.
It promises zero cancellations and no surge pricing.
Customers have been flocking to avail the services of the Gurugram-based company.
It owns all the 3,000 EVs it has on its ride-hailing portal and is also present in some parts of Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru.
Ola stepping up?
Ola has promised that new services would be operated by “the top rated drivers and will provide benefits like 100% ride assurance post allocation of the cab, zero cancellations, facilitate 100% cashless payments and a seamless ride experience”.
Bhavish Aggarwal, founder and CEO, Ola Electric says, “Electrification of the ride-hailing fleet is the next frontier for the industry and a huge step in the direction of the future of mobility.
Our road map of developing in-house core technologies and products that can be leveraged across group level gives us a very strong competitive advantage in the ride-hailing business.”
All talk and no substance
He added that the company is “completely reimagining this segment” to serve both customers and drivers and improve their experiences
Aside from that they aim to “offer clean and green mobility options eventually to 500 million Indians”.
It should be noted that similar claims were made in the past but failed to deliver on those.
Its promise 6 years ago
Ola had written in a blog post in 2017 ahead of its Nagpur launch.
It read, “The company will develop ‘Mission: Electric’ as a platform to bring one million electric vehicles on the road by 2021…with a commitment to place 10,000 e-rickshaws and electric auto-rickshaws in its service in the next 12 months.
From cycle rickshaws to ‘shuttles’ and last-mile transport, three-wheelers.”
