Ola in talks with luxury carmakers Audi, Mercedes for self-drive subscription services: Report

RAJUPILLAY2197 · 发表于 2019-04-21 23:45:42

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[br]Ride-hailing platform Ola is in discussions with luxury carmakers, including Audi, Mercedes and BMW, to launch a subscription-based service under its self-drive offering, according to sources.[br][br]Ola has been running a small-scale pilot of the self-drive service in Bengaluru currently, and is expected to launch the offering in the next few weeks through Ola Fleet Technologies.[br][br]The company is also believed to have earmarked an investment of up to $500 million (including debt) for the self-drive service.[br][br]According to sources privy to the development, the company is in talks with carmakers like Audi, Mercedes and BMW to bring to India a model where users can get access to luxury cars by paying a subscription fee.[br][br]Email queries sent to Ola, Audi, Mercedes and BMW did not elicit any response.[br][br]One of the persons said the format is available in developed markets like the US, but given the high cost of luxury vehicles in India, a direct-to-customer model may not be not feasible in the country.[br][br]The person added that Ola sees a lot of potential in bringing this model to India given its scale of operations across multiple categories and cities.[br][br]Ola already allows customers to book rides in luxury cars through its 'Lux' offering. In October 2016, the Bengaluru-based company had partnered with BMW for expanding the category.[br][br]The company, which competes with the US-based Uber in India and international markets like Australia, has been aggressively ramping up its rides business as well as food delivery operations (through Foodpanda).[br][br]It had recently announced that Hyundai and Kia are investing $300 million in the company.[br][br]Ola, which counts names like SoftBank Group and China's Tencent Holdings among its investors, had received Rs 650 crore funding from Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal in February this year.[br][br]Ola's electric mobility arm Ola Electric Mobility has also raised Rs 400 crore from Tiger Global, Matrix India and others.[br][br][br][br]#Infinix_India.....