Hyundai, Kia to invest in Indian version of Uber ‘Ola’

Hyundai, Kia to invest in Indian version of Uber ‘Ola’. March. 20, 2019 07:57. bjk@donga.com.
Hyundai Motor and its sister company Kia Motors will invest 330 billion won in India’s leading ride-hailing company “Ola” as part of their strategy to better respond to changes in the auto industry by expanding their business scope to include a ride-hailing service.

The two Korean automakers said Tuesday that they will invest a total of 338.4 billion won (270.7 billion won from Hyundai and 67.7 billion won from Kia) in Ola for their collaboration in the fields of development and supply of vehicles and ride-hailing service. Ola, which was founded in 2011, is the largest ride-hailing service provider in India with some 1.3 million units of registered vehicles operating in 125 cities around the world. The company has boosted the one billion trip milestone.

As the first carmakers to invest in Ola, Hyundai and Kia will develop and supply customized vehicles for the ride-hailing service. They are also planning to develop electric cars tailored to the Indian market by using the data on customers and vehicles acquired through Ola.

The ride-hailing service market is rapidly growing in India. The average number of rides per day in India jumped from one million in 2015 to 3.5 million in 2018. Furthermore, the Indian government is planning to change all new cars sold by 2030 to electric ones as part of its policy to put more eco-friendly vehicles on the road. As India is an attractive market that can replace China, Hyundai and Kia are increasing their production volume in India.

Along with the investment, Hyundai and Kia have taken a step forward to become a comprehensive mobility provider that not only produces cars but also provides a variety of car-related services. The two automakers invested last year approximately 280 billion won in “Grab,” the biggest ride-hailing service provider in Southeast Asia, and are also in collaboration with India’s ride-hailing company “Revv.”