NEW DELHI, 20 Feb 2023:
Indian carmaker Tata Motors today announced an agreement to supply Uber with 25,000 electric vehicles in the country, without revealing details – although the market price of such a fleet is estimated to be around US$400 million – amid a government push for e-vehicles.
“Tata Motors, India’s leading automobile manufacturer and the pioneer of India’s EV evolution, today signed an MoU with Uber, India’s leading ridesharing app, to bring 25,000 XPRES–T EVs into their premium category service. Aligned towards its goal of a clean and green environment,” the carmaker said in a statement.
Tata Motors would begin supplying the cars to the US-based cab operator “in a phased manner, starting this month,” the company’s passenger electric mobility managing director Shailesh Chandra said.
Uber India president Prabhjeet Singh said that agreement would help boost “the transition to zero emissions on the Uber platform.”
The two parties did not reveal the size of the deal, although Tata’s most basic model of the XPRES-T line is priced at 1.3 million rupees (around US$15,700), which takes the total cost of the fleet to over US$390 million.
The Indian government has set the target of converting 30% of the country’s automobile sector to electric vehicles by 2030, compared to the current figure of 0.47% that the industries ministry released in July.
The authorities have announced incentives for e-vehicle production and reduced the value added tax on these vehicles from 12% to 5%.
Increasing the proportion of e-vehicles is a key step for India to reach net carbon neutral status by 2070, a goal that Indian prime minister Narendra Modi announced during the 2021 COP26 summit in Glasgow.
Despite a population of 1.4 billion or 17% of the world population, India accounted for just 7.5% of global emissions in 2021, although the figure is expected to increase over the next few years.
– EFE