[wheelguy]

The ride-hailing app has a fleet of 350 EVs, which will be expanded to 1,500 by the year-end.

Bengaluru: Ride-hailing app Uber plans to quadruple its electric vehicles fleet in India by the end of the year, leveraging strategic partnerships across the ecosystem, its top country executive told ET.

In an exclusive interview with ET, Pradeep Parameswaran, the CEO of Uber India and South Asia said the company looks at India as a growth market for the next ten years as it continues to partner with the auto industry and startups to launch new products, especially in the electric mobility space.

“Next year, we will accelerate that push with a focus on two- and three-wheelers... EVs will become a meaningful part of the overall portfolio in 24 months,” he said.

Uber’s move towards electric mobility is driven by a two-fold agenda – better business economics and increased government push.

“Roughly, two out of the three Uber trips are in cars, and one in an auto and bike. By the end of the year, we expect that in the big cities, the mix of auto and moto rides will touch 50%... and in small towns, auto and moto will be well north of 50%,” he said.

Talking about Uber’s expansion beyond its core ride-hailing business, Parameswaran said that the company believes it does not need to be the vertical service provider for every mode and use-case.

“Outside of China, India has the most vibrant mobility ecosystem in the world... A number of mobility players that have scaled in the last two years — from Bounce, Vogo, Rapido, Quick Ride — we are actively considering ways to expand our relevance through partnerships,” he told ET. These partnerships also align with Uber’s global plan of narrowing losses.

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Quadrupling the number of EVs in their fleet will be reasonably easy for Uber, given that they are starting from a very small number of EVs.

The bigger challenge would be the 24 month goal of making EVs a meaningful part of the overall portfolio. Uber alone cannot make that happen. Some auto maker would have to offer an EV which will last the day without recharging for a cabbie. Also, that EV needs to be competitively priced, and must be available in a no frills variant.