Ola Electric, India’s first multimodal electric vehicle project, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from automakers giant Hyundai and Kia Motors.
The investment made in Ola Electric will allow Hyundai to get all the information required to launch the next electric vehicle, at an affordable cost.
Post investment, Ola Electric has attain the status of a unicorn, reaching valuation at more than $1 billion.
Ola Electric mobility was set up as an independent entity in March 2019. It is currently running several pilots involving charging solutions, battery swapping stations, and deploying vehicles across two, three and four-wheeler segments.
While, Ola has already begun piloting its electric mobility services in Nagpur and is trying out battery swap as the viable option to extend battery life and reduce the total cost of ownership.
Hyundai, on the other hand, has a definite strategy to launch more EVs in the next five years.
Whereas, the government has been rooting for battery-operated vehicles to increase sustainable mobility, and Niti Aayog, the government think-tank expects to take the country by electric vehicles by 2030.
This would reduce India’s dependence on fossil fuel, which affects the current account deficits, by creating an energy sharing economy.
However, with the growth of electric mobility as a business, the government must plan for peak loads and ensure that the grid can support more than three million electric vehicles.
Furthermore, as per the government’s data, presently, India has more than 1.5 million electric vehicles.
During the last financial year, more than 750,000 EVs were sold, a majority of them being electric autos – 630,000 units.
Besides, other electric-based ride-hailing and sharing startups includes Vogo, Yulu, Uber, among others.