Mahindras, American Uber to jointly drive EV push in India

The company, which has already tied up with Uber's rival Ola to build an electric mass mobility ecosystem in Nagpur, will deploy "hundreds of electric vehicles in Delhi and Hyderabad" under the new partnership.

Mahindra's electric vehicles on the Uber platform will include the e2oPlus hatch and the eVerito sedan.

"Our collaboration with Uber is an important next step to help accelerate the large scale adoption of electric vehicles on shared mobility platforms and meet the nation's vision for EVs," M&M Managing Director Pawan Goenka told reporters here.

As part of this collaboration, both the companies will also explore deployment of Mahindra electric vehicles in other cities.

On the tie-up, Uber Chief Business Officer, India and Emerging Markets, Madhu Kannan said the company aims to build a more sustainable future of mobility, moving more people requiring on-demand services with fewer, fuller, and more efficient vehicle trips.

"We see a key role for high efficiency vehicle technologies and therefore, believe that this collaboration with Mahindra, the pioneers in the electric vehicles space, will be truly beneficial not just for Uber, but for our driver partners, riders and the cities we operate in," he added.

As part of the arrangement, driver partners on the Uber app can avail of a package that will include Mahindra electric vehicles at competitive prices, attractive financing and insurance premiums as well as comprehensive maintenance packages from M&M and its associates.

Furthermore, to make this model durable, M&M and Uber will work closely with public and private players which are in the process of setting up a common use charging ecosystem across multiple locations in the cities.

M&M will also support driver education and training related to various aspects of electric vehicles.

Mumbai: Auto major Mahindra & Mahindra on Friday said it will bid for the second stage of the tender for supplying 9,500 electric vehicles (EVs) to state-run Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL). "We will bid for the second stage of EESL tender," M&M Managing Director Pawan Goenka said. The order for the second phase will be issued after the completion of deliveries of 500 EVs in the first phase by November 30. M&M had earlier said that it would have to take a "hard look" whether it would be justifiable to participate in the second phase of the tender as it was finding it difficult to match the per unit price being offered by Tata Motors. Tata Motors had quoted the lowest price of Rs 10.16 lakh exclusive of GST for the tender. Later, Mahindra also decided to participate in the tender. The EVs procured under the tender will be used to replace petrol and diesel cars being used by the central government and its agencies over a 3 to 4-year period. Goenka said the company is looking to ramp up the EV production to 5,000 units by the end of 2019. "Currently, we have 4,000 EVs on Indian roads which amounts to around 50 million kms of drive," he added.