By 2030 Uber, Ola, & Zomato Will Be Forced To Be Electric In New Delhi

India is aggressively ramping up regulatory frameworks towards encouraging the transport industry in the country towards sustainable and environmentally friendly technology. By 2030 every app based ride sharing service like Uber or Ola or food delivery services like Zomato which enables users to order food online will be forced to adopt vehicles that are based on electric powertrains in India’s capital New Delhi, the Times Of India reports. This will be part of a new aggregator scheme the New Delhi government is working on which will also put limits to surge pricing tactics that ride sharing companies like Uber and Ola deploy when the supply of cabs outstrips the demand for them.

The Delhi government put the Draft Delhi motor vehicle aggregators scheme which was in the public domain for 21 days and invited suggestions or objections from the public. The scheme is meant for licensing and regulation of aggregators providing passenger transport services and for the regulation of providing delivery of goods in the city. This means this could also apply to logistics companies like BlueDart, FedEx, DHL, Delhivery, Pidge etc.

The government had released a draft scheme in February and had solicited suggestions which have now been incorporated in the final draft. “In the final draft, there are clearly defined boxes of different obligations of EV conversion for passenger-carrying fleets, last-mile delivery fleets and e-commerce companies. With different obligations, we have tried to make the transition to EV gentler,” said Ashish Kundra, Prinicipal secretary cum transport commissioner for Delhi.

The previous draft had similar slabs for all categories but now there are more slabs with proportionally more EVs in the fleet.

“However, by 2030, there has to be a fully electric fleet, which could include new EVs or retrofitted old vehicles, “ Kundra added.

Another aspect of the draft which related to surge pricing will bar ride sharing operators to go beyond 2x the base fare when in surge mode. The base fare will also be set by this draft which hasn’t been revealed.  There are also additions to provide better safety measures.

For Ola this could be great news as it already is in the process of developing its own electric car after having mixed success with its first electric scooter. Ride hailing services like BluSmart are also already compliant with a big chunk of the new draft regulations as it operates a fully EV fleet.