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Ola Cabs, the India-based online transportation network company, made its international debut last year. The company will soon get an investment of USD 300 million from Korean car brands Hyundai and Kia Motors for the next phase of their mobility solutions and electric vehicles.
Ola says that the companies will work on improving its local infrastructure and develop electric vehicles for India. Hyundai and Kia will also develop solutions to operate and manage fleet vehicles. This deal also marks Hyundai’s entry into fleet solution development.
Speaking on the occasion, Euisun Chung, executive vice chairman, Hyundai Motor Group said; “India is the centerpiece of Hyundai Motor Group’s strategy to gain leadership in the global mobility market. Our partnership with Ola will certainly accelerate our efforts to transform into a Smart Mobility Solutions Provider.”
As a part of the deal, Hyundai and Kia will provide customised vehicles and financial support to lease vehicles to Ola’s driving partners. The carmakers will also provide maintenance and repair services for the vehicles. It would help lower the final cost of ownership of these vehicles.
In its statement, Ola said that this deal will create over 2 million job opportunities with its mobility solutions by 2022. Currently, Ola has already over 1.3 million partners on its platform. The three companies will accumulate data with the aim of making improvements to their vehicles. The data will be used to make improvements to their product roadmap.
Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO, Ola Cabs said “This partnership will also significantly benefit driver-partners on our platform, as we collaborate with Hyundai to build vehicles and solutions that enable sustainable earnings for millions of them, in the time to come.”
Over the last couple of years, Hyundai is also focusing on developing smart mobility solutions. In January, Hyundai joined the Linux Foundation and the nonprofit’s seven-year-old Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) to contribute and develop from the software created by its 140 companies. The other members of the AGL include Honda, Toyota, Ford and Suzuki. The companies work in tandem to develop open source software to develop infotainment, telematics and instrument cluster applications.
Last year, Ola announced its ‘Mission Electric’ program, with which the company intends to get 10,000 three-wheeled electric vehicles in a span of 12 months and 1 million electric vehicles by end of 2021. The electric venture from Ola is closer to fruition. Earlier this month, the company announced its electric vehicle business called Ola electric. This has raised a funding of USD 56 million from two Ola investors.
