Tata Motors, India’s largest manufacturer of electric vehicles, has agreed to supply 25,000 of its X-Pres-T electric sedans to Uber’s network of fleet partners in the country’s largest order for electric vehicles. According to a top Tata Motors executive, the vehicles will be delivered over a period of 12 to 15 months. He also stated that the order is more than twice as large as the previous year’s 10,000-car deal with BluSmart.
Uber will collaborate with financiers to assist medium and large-sized fleet operators on its platform in purchasing these EVs by easing access to the vehicles in a supply-constrained environment. The EV rides will be classified as premium. It will also collaborate with charge point operators to install fast chargers at airports and railway stations, as well as home-charging solutions in low-income areas or multi-housing units where driver partners typically reside.
Ride-sharing platforms are working to reduce emissions from their vehicles, with Uber pledging to offer all of its rides on its platform worldwide via EVs, micro-mobility, or public transportation by 2040.
The cab aggregator platform is also open to collaborating with “multiple partners” to bring more electric vehicles to the platform, including two-wheelers, three-wheelers, and four-wheelers. The collaboration also advances Uber’s plans to provide drivers with guaranteed economic returns on their investments and to use Uber’s platform expertise to plan where and when to deploy the vehicles, according to Prabhjeet Singh, Uber’s president of India and South Asia.
The vehicles will be phased in across seven major markets, including Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Ahmedabad, with the first deliveries already taking place in Delhi and Mumbai. While Tata Motors plans to produce these vehicles within the next 15 months, Uber plans to deploy them over a three-year period.
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