Mahindra Enters App-Based Cab Business With Glyd; Challenges Ola, Uber In Mumbai
Glyd will only provide electric cabs, and this changes the equations.
World’s largest manufacturer of tractors, and India’s one of the biggest automobile manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra has decided to enter the lucrative, yet competitive app-based taxi business.
Glyd, from Mahindra is all set to challenge Uber and Ola in India.
What is Glyd all about?
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Mahindra’s Entry Into App-Based Taxi Niche: Glyd
Glyd is the name of Mahindra’s app-based taxi hailing service, which has been launched in Mumbai. This way, Mahindra will now directly compete against Uber and Ola, atleast in Mumbai as of now.
Very soon, Glyd will expand into Delhi and Bengaluru, as these cities have better infrastructure to manage electric cars.
Glyd: Premium E-Mobility Service
The highlight of Glyd is that every cab available for bookings will be electric.
On Day 1 of the launch, 10 e-Veritos, which are the fully electric versions of Verito cars, was flagged-off in Mumbai.
To start with, the service has been planned in and around Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) and Lower Parel in Mumbai. Since they are premium business districts of Mumbai, BKC can have a fleet of 200-400 electric cars and Lower Parel around 800-1,600 cars within next 12 months.
Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, M&M, said, “Glyd is our unique step to drive positive change towards a smart, sustainable and experiential daily commute. Going forward we plan to launch multiple e-mobility solutions, across cities.”
Glyd’s Business Model
Glyd from Mahindra has been more or less based on the business model of Ola and Uber: Users can book their cabs in real time, via an app.
Mahindra will not own any cars, and the entire fleet will be owned by the drivers and service providers themselves, just like Ola and Uber.
As of now, the fleet of 10 e-Veritos is owned by Meru Cabs. It is expected that more such cab companies will join Glyd’s platform, and offer electric car service.
Ola too had launched an electric car fleet in Nagpur, but the pilot project failed to take-off due to lack of interest.
In 2015, Mahindra had launched SmartShift, an app-based cargo aggregator business.
Glyd’s USPs
Since Glyd will provide only electric cars, the charges can be premium. It is expected that the charges for booking a ride on Glyd will be 5-10% more than Uber and Ola.
As per experts, Mahindra has used Bengaluru based electric cab company Lithium’s features and services while designing Glyd.
Some unique features of Glyd:
- All electric cabs under Glyd will be Mahindra vehicles. Tata is the only other automobile manufacturer of electric cars in India. Hence, Mahindra will own a monopoly on this platform.
- The cabs will be equipped with: Privacy screen, air purifier, strain-free lighting, bolstered seats, wrap-around headrest and custom designed armrests
- WiFI from Vodafone-Idea
- Cisco Systems have developed the app, and the functionalities of the entire system.
We will keep you updated, as more details come in.
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