On Friday, Ola along with Mahindra announced a joint venture programme to build an electric mass mobility ecosystem in Nagpur. Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, and Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport, Highways and Shipping, inaugurated the multi-modal electric vehicle project and Ola Electric charging station.
This project brings vehicles across different segments and will include – e-cabs, e-buses, e-rickshaws, and e-autos on one platform. A press note sent by the company states that they already have over 100 of Mahindra’s e20 plus vehicles and the rest of the fleet will consist of vehicles sources from other OEMs including Tata Motors, Kinetic, BYD, and TVS amongst others.
The electric charging station was unveiled within Nagpur’s airport complex. Ola has already invested upward of Rs 50 crore towards EVs and charging infrastructure, starting with over 50 charging points across four strategic locations in the city of Nagpur.
The press note by the company also states that Ola will also invest in training and educating driver partners on maintenance and use of in-car technology along with its key OEM partners like Mahindra.
Bhavish Aggarwal, Co-founder and CEO of Ola, says that they are excited about how this could transform the mobility experience for millions of citizens, unlock immense opportunity for driver partners, and positively impact the environment and quality of life in our cities.
“We believe that Electric Mobility in a multi-modal format, will be key towards realising our mission of building mobility for a billion Indians,” says Bhavish.
Gadkari says that there is an urgent need to re-think and revisit transport infrastructure and fuel dependency across not just India, but the globe.
He also believes that the large-scale adoption of electric vehicles can bring the monumental change that we need. He also announced the launch of the 100 percent electric vehicle nation by 2030 mission. Fadnavis also said that in support of this initiative, the state has waived off VAT, road tax, and registration for all electric vehicles in the state, and they look forward to building Maharashtra as a model state for others to emulate in the future.