Ola to Add 5000 CNG Cabs in a Week; Offers Drivers 1.5 Lakh Savings for Exchanging Old Diesel Vehicles

As mobile based cab rental apps are getting popular, there is one profession that is seeing lot of influx – Vehicle Drivers. Companies like Ola and Uber have made driving rental cabs lucrative. Most drivers make over Rs. 50,000 a month driving their cabs which purely work for Ola and Uber Apps.

Constant influx of driver partners is extremely important for these app companies as well, because increasing the fleet allows them scale at much faster pace. Unlike traditional business, these cabs are not owned by the company, but the drivers themselves.

Now, Ola has announced some aggressive plans for their growth in Delhi area – Ola plans to expand its fleet of CNG cabs in Delhi by adding more than 5000 CNG cabs in the next one week. For the same, the company has brought together car manufacturers, banks & financiers and valuation platforms to enable heavy discounts, attractive loan offers and on spot valuation and exchange.

For drivers who do not own a vehicle, or have a old Diesel vehicles, this initiative by Ola can be tremendously helpful. Ola claims that drivers across Delhi NCR stand to benefit from savings of up to Rs. 1,50,000 on exchanging their old diesel vehicles for a new CNG one.

This move by Ola will not only help the drivers, but will help curb the pollution menace that Delhi region has been fighting for long. This is one of the largest amongst a series of programs rolled out by Ola to encourage CNG adoption in Delhi NCR.

According to Pranay Jivrajka, COO at Ola, “Ola is bringing a great opportunity for driver partners across Delhi NCR to benefit from heavy discounts on new CNG vehicles, optimum on-spot valuation & exchange and a lot more. Through this mega event, we intend adding 5000 new CNG vehicles on our platform in the region, which would in turn contribute to a clean and green Delhi NCR.”

Currently, there are more than 20,000 CNG cabs registered on the Ola platform in Delhi NCR and this new initiative will ramp up the number to over 25,000 CNG vehicles. Ola has said that they also plan to invest INR 200 crore for CNG adoption in Delhi NCR.

Why Ola wants to scale aggressively?

While Ola is the biggest mobile based cab aggregator in India, they are under a constant threat from their biggest competitor Uber. Ola consistently claims to have over 70 percent market share in India, but Uber executives have said that they are much closer to Ola in numbers and right now very close to 50 percent.

In fact, just couple of days back, Eric Alexander, president of Uber’s Asia business said in an interview to Livemint, “In January last year, we were at 5% market share. Now we are right at the edge of 50%. I would say that within the next 30 days we would beat them (Ola). We will surpass them very, very shortly.”

While this may be a bit exaggerated, Uber has shown signs that they are growing aggressively in India and threatening to take pole position from Ola. This has ensured that Ola goes all out in next few weeks and months to save their turf!