Ola focusing on electric fleet and Play services for future growth

Ola, the largest ride sharing firm in the domestic market, is expanding its fleet of electric vehicles and its content platform Ola Play as revenue generators of future. Ola Play, which is available on tablets installed in the Prime cabs, offers music, shopping apps, movies and other video content to customers and lets them control air-conditioning. It is a premium service offered by Ola to differentiate itself from the bland experience one get while riding Uber. On top of the differentiating factor, Ola also plans to generate revenues by serving ads on the platform since the passenger will be using the device provided by Ola.

The other segment wherein the company see enormous potential is the electric mobility. Ola plans to introduce electric cabs and rickshaws in at least eight cities by March’18. It may add electric bikes later to the fleet. These initiatives will be funded by SoftBank, Ola’s largest investor, the Indian government, car and bike makers and Ola. Nagpur is the epicenter of this revolution, and the company has already started the electric cab services there last week.

Bhavish Agarwal, CEO Ola, said that “Ola had invested Rs50 crore in the Nagpur initiative and planned to invest $2 billion to run one million electric vehicles across India by 2020. Ola is also investing in charging stations to support its push into electric vehicles”. Ola and Uber are locked in an intense fight in the domestic market and it’s important for both the players to distinguish themselves from others.