Uber seeks similar timeline as other tech cos to transition bike taxi fleet to electric in Delhi

Urban mobility agency Uber mentioned on Friday that the timeline for changing its bike taxi fleet in Delhi-NCR to electrical must be the identical as that for the meals and grocery supply fleet.

The US-based ride-hailing firm mentioned in a weblog publish that “steep and infeasible” EV mandates within the proposed aggregator coverage threat killing the bike taxi sector.

According to the state’s draft aggregator coverage, 100% of the bike taxi fleet must be electrical by the second yr of the coverage coming into impact and any new onboarding must be 100% electrical from the day of notification.

The meals supply area has a extra relaxed mandate, with solely 10% of the brand new fleet needing to be transformed to electrical in six months, 25% in a single yr, 50% in two years, 75% in three years and 100% in 4 years.

Further, all aggregators shall be required to transition to an all-electric fleet by 2030.

“Different electrification mandates for ridesharing and delivery sectors not only lead to inequitable sharing of responsibility but seriously disadvantage the entire industry. Two-wheeler ridesharing apps should be seen at parity with others like delivery and services,” Uber mentioned.

The variety of meals and grocery supply rides, it mentioned, far surpasses bike taxi rides however they’re being given a extra sensible timeframe for electrification. “Given the economics around EV vs petrol bikes, tech platforms need to invest heavily to keep driver earnings on EV bikes at parity with petrol bikes, irrespective of delivery or ridesharing. Thus, it is only fair that the timelines for the conversion of the fleet should be the same across sectors,” it mentioned.

Last week, Delhi authorities issued a public discover asking bike taxi firms to cease companies within the metropolis instantly as there have been no insurance policies to control the area.

But the competition round electrification began after state transport minister Kailash Gahlot mentioned following the bike taxi ban that firms can apply for a licence beneath the upcoming aggregator coverage.

The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), an business physique representing tech firms like Ola, Uber, Rapido, Swiggy, Zomato amongst others, has additionally argued in opposition to the sturdy push for electrification within the state’s draft aggregator coverage, ET reported on February 22.

The business physique mentioned this might affect the livelihood of gig-economy employees for the reason that identical car and driver is now used throughout classes.

When the 100% EV mandate kicks in, it takes away the gig-workers’ skill to change to bike taxi operation when the meals supply orders are low, particularly through the morning and night peak hour site visitors. This will have an effect on the provision of drivers on ride-hailing apps, which might probably kill the bike taxi class, business sources mentioned.

The Delhi authorities aggregator coverage’s first draft, which got here out in January final yr, had the identical guidelines for tech firms throughout sectors like meals supply, ecommerce and ride-hailing, however the second draft, launched in July 2022, break up the principles based mostly on completely different sectors.

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