By Dominick Rodrigues
Mumbai, Oct 8: Uber announced a partnership with Lithium Urban Technologies, India’s largest electric vehicle fleet operator, to deploy over 1,000 electric vehicles — all sedans — across Uber Rentals and Premier in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune.
Prabhjeet Singh, President, Uber India and South Asia said here today “The partnership with Lithium Urban Technologies — a pioneer in sustainable urban mobility — is our fourth partnership in this space including Yulu, Mahindra and SUN Mobility, and Uber will always remain committed to providing smarter mobility, building greener cities and creating healthier lives.”
Highlighting greener commuting solutions for Uber riders, Singh said “Today, with six years and more than two billion trips later, Uber has started tackling an even greater challenge: reducing congestion and pollution in our cities by getting more people into fewer cars.”
Noting that over the next 12 months, Uber remains committed to scaling up to 2,000 electric vehicles on its platform, including the Lithium EVs, he said Uber has so far deployed over 100 of these electric vehicles, such as Mahindra eVerito and Tata Tigor EV, on its platform and Lithium’s charging hubs in these cities have the capacity to charge multiple cars and buses simultaneously. “They also have fast and slow chargers installed at multiple sites across these cities. While a fast charger can charge a sedan in 90 minutes, a slow charger can do that in 8 to 9 hours,” he said.
With a vision of making urban commutes more affordable, sustainable and convenient, this partnership will help cities ‘Build back better’. The association is also in line with Uber’s recently announced global commitment to make all rides on its platform 100% emission-free by 2040 through zero-emission vehicles and the integration of public transport and micro-mobility.
Commenting on the partnership, Ashwin Mahesh, Co-Founder and CEO, Lithium Urban Technologies said, “Our partnership with Uber has the potential to significantly add to the number of electric kilometres covered by cars in every city. The responsibility to accelerate the adoption of clean mobility belongs to all of us, and partnerships have an important role to play in making that happen. Electric vehicles are particularly well-suited to the shared economy, and that’s why we’re seeing their early adoption, most noticeably in fleets.”
Lithium was established in 2014 to encourage an environment friendly mobility solution for corporates. The first and the largest 100% electric fleet operator outside China, Lithium runs its 1000+ electric fleet of hatchbacks, sedans, SUVs and buses across 10 cities in India with its own charging infrastructure of 500+ fast and slow chargers and charging hubs. Having clocked over 100 million ‘green’ kilometres and abating over 20,000 MT of CO2e to date, Lithium has also received the ISO 26000 certification for exemplary work in guidance on social responsibility.
According to the 2019 IQAir rankings, 14 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world are in India. Exposure to outdoor and indoor air pollution contributed to over 1.2 million deaths in India in 2017, according to the State of Global Air Report. Faced with such a reality, the Uber-Lithium partnership will continue to operationalize Uber’s vision of always being a responsible corporate citizen and building a more sustainable future.
