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Uber Technologies said it is experimenting with intra-city buses, quadricycles and electric scooters and auto-rickshaws in India, reports Business Standard.
The shift coincides with its expansion plan to grow its presence to 50 cities from the current 36 by December-end.
Pradeep Parameswaran, President – India & South Asia, Uber, told the newspaper the company will add capacity only if there is demand to absorb it.
“Why we had not gone to many of the cities earlier was because we had limited relevance there. But now we have a diversified portfolio. We will bring about multi-modal transportation options.”
In Trichy, the company offers only auto-rickshaws and no cars, he said, adding that he expects to have more auto-rickshaw riders than cars in Sri Lanka.
The company plans to pilot electric two- and three-wheelers in India, the report said. Globally, the rid-sharing service provider has discovered that one out of four riders, who hire a non-electric two-wheeler, are women. This is prompting it to study the possibility of bring Jump, a two-wheeler EV manufacturer, to India, the report added.
It is also testing extending intra-city bus services to inter-city services (similar to that launched in Egypt and Mexico) in places where cars are only available, the report said.
“We are exploring high capacity 12 or 30-40 seater vehicles. Some of the routes will be fixed but for others we will use technology to have variable routes based on demand," Parameswaran said.
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