Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) has declared its decision to invest in the self-drive car-rental service provider, Zoomcar. Under the deal, the Mahindra Group would invest up to Rs 176 Crore, which would constitute a stake of approximately 16 percent in Zoomcar.
Mahindra has been advancing Electric Vehicles alongside the promotion of shared mobility and in early 2017, Mahindra and Zoomcar announced a partnership to introduce electric vehicles into the shared mobility space. In fact, the latter has already Mahindra e20Plus electric vehicles to its fleet, which is accessible in Mysore, Bangalore, and Hyderabad, and going forward, Zoomcar intends to add 500+ Mahindra EVs across more than 20 cities pan-India, in the first half of 2018.
Talking about this latest investment, Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra mentioned, "At Mahindra, we are playing a pioneering role in the shared mobility business and are looking forward to an impetus in it through this investment in Zoomcar. We are confident that this partnership with Zoomcar will assist further our vision to transform mobility in the country, thereby creating a more connected ecosystem".
On the other hand, Greg Moran, Co-Founder and CEO, Zoomcar said, "We are incredibly excited to welcome the Mahindra team on board for this next phase of growth, within the Indian self-drive mobility space. Our collaboration with Mahindra dates back to 2013 when we first kicked-off in Bangalore. Most prominently, Mahindra shares Zoomcar's vision for multi-modal urban mobility and we look forward to leveraging their dissimilar platform to help accelerate the transformation to a shared, electric mobility future for India".
Mahindra isn't the main car manufacturer to invest in Zoomcar on account of shared mobility space. In early 2016, Ford Motor Company's Smart Mobility LLC led Rs 161 Crore investment in Zoomcar, alongside the current investors Sequoia Capital, Nokia Growth Partners and Empire Angels. Some popular cars of Mahindra include Bolero, e2o Plus, Verito and more.
