India's first cab leasing program from Ola's subsidiary, to add 100,000 cabs by 2016

The program will enable flexibility for drivers to lease a car for a minimal initial deposit and monthly lease payments with an option to own the vehicle after a period of 3 years, opening up tremendous opportunity for hundreds of thousands of drivers to turn entrepreneurs in the long run while giving them instant access to a stable income.

Ola’s subsidiary has already piloted the leasing program with over 1000 vehicles across Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and three other cities. For this pilot, a majority of vehicles were sourced from Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.

Ola is in advance talks with leading car manufacturers and financial institutions to enable this model for over a 100,000 driver partners by the end of 2016. By December 2015, at least 10,000 cars are expected to be on-road under the leasing model. Up to INR 5,000cr of capital will be infused towards this program in the coming year.

Ola will be investing INR 500cr to begin with, and will raise funds independently for this subsidiary in the time to come, the company said in a statemet.

Rahul Maroli, who has recently joined Ola, as Vice President- Strategic Supply Initiatives shall be heading the leasing business.

Bhavish Aggarwal, Co-founder & CEO, Ola said, “We believe that this first of its kind leasing program brings a unique benefit to driver partners to turn entrepreneurs. Through key partnerships with financial institutions and car manufacturers, Ola’s subsidiary will be able to bring in additional high quality supply to address the unmet mobility demands of millions of users in the country. On that note, I’m also very excited to bring on-board Rahul to lead the leasing business for Ola’s subsidiary. His rich experience shall help us scale this business rapidly and in making this first of its kind program, an industry benchmark.”