Ola Electric Mobility, a company, backed by Ola, an Indian ride-sharing company, announced that it has raised a sum of ₹3.9 billion ($56.4 million) led by several of Ola’s early investors including, Tiger Global and Matrix India and others, as part of its first round of investment.

In 2018, Ola announced its ‘Mission: Electric.’ The goal of this mission was to bring one million electric vehicles on Indian roads by 2022. Ola Electric is currently running pilots to deploy electric vehicles and charging solutions, including battery swapping stations, electric 2-wheeler, and 3-wheeler services amongst others.

The new business is led by Ola executives Anand Shah and Ankit Jain. Building on pilot initiatives and evolving market dynamics, the company is focused on deploying charging, and battery swapping networks focused on the commercial electric vehicle segment.

According to Ola, its electric mobility platform has partnered with OEMs and battery manufacturers, and the company intends to work closely with the automotive industry to create seamless solutions for electric vehicle operations. Ola aims to support electric vehicles used for commercial activities, both by the Government of India and various state governments across the country. Ola Electric also seeks to provide the necessary infrastructure to enable “clean kilometers traveled” at scale.

In May 2018, Mercom reported that India’s charging infrastructure needs to get established quickly for electric vehicles to get on the road in meaningful numbers.

Recently, the Indian Government has approved a proposal for the implementation of the second phase of ‘Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India Phase II)’ for the promotion of electric mobility in the country. Fame India Phase II is expected to deploy $1.41 billion to encourage adoption of commercial and private electric vehicles in India.

Image Credit: Ola

Shaurya is a staff reporter at MercomIndia.com with experience working in the Indian solar energy industry for the past four years in various roles. Prior to joining Mercom, Shaurya worked with a renewable energy developer and a consulting company. Shaurya holds a Bachelors Degree in Business Management from Lancaster University in the United Kingdom.