Securing one of the largest deals in the green mobility space, Tata Motors has signed an agreement to provide 25,000 XPRES–T electric vehicles (EV) to ridesharing platform Uber.
The deliveries of the vehicles to Uber fleet partners will begin in a phased manner, starting this month.
The financial terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed but despite the upfront cost of electric vehicles being high, for fleet owners, the returns work out better because the running and maintenance cost is lower than internal combustion engine cars. On top of this, there’s a FAME subsidy by the government.
A single unit of XPRES–T, with a range of 315 km, is priced at Rs 14.98 lakh (ex-showroom) and entails a FAME subsidy of Rs 2.6 lakh.
Uber will use the vehicles for its premium category services across Delhi National Capital Region, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad.
“In line with our commitment to grow sustainable mobility in the country, we are delighted to partner with Uber, India’s leading ridesharing platform. Offering customers our environmentally friendly EV ride experiences via Uber’s premium category service will accelerate the adoption of green and clean personal ride sharing,” Shailesh Chandra, MD at Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility, said.
In July 2021, Tata Motors launched the ‘XPRES’ brand for fleet customers. The XPRES-T EV is the first vehicle under the brand. Tata Motors has rolled out more than 50,000 EVs, which are being used in the personal and fleet segments.
The new XPRES-T electric sedan comes with two range options – 315km and 277 km (Automotive Research Association of India certified range under test conditions). The two models pack a high energy density battery of 26 kWh and 25.5 kWh which can be charged from 0-80% in 59 minutes and 110 minutes respectively, using fast charging, or can also be normally charged from any 15A plug point.
It comes with zero tail-pipe emission, single-speed automatic transmission, dual airbags, and ABS with EBD as standard across variants.
“Uber is committed to bringing sustainable, shared mobility to India, and this partnership with Tata Motors is a major milestone on that journey. It represents the largest EV partnership yet between an automaker and a ridesharing platform in India. It will supercharge the transition to zero emissions on the Uber platform as we work towards building a sustainable future,” Prabhjeet Singh, president, Uber India and South Asia, said.
Uber has committed to 100% of rides taking place in zero-emission vehicles, on public transit, or with micro-mobility by 2040.
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