Taxi hailing service Ola on Monday announced that it will invest Rs 5,000 crore for a leasing programme under which drivers can lease a car for a minimal initial deposit.
The company will tie-up with leading car manufacturers and financial institutions for the initiative. The drivers can opt for monthly lease payments with an option to own the vehicle after a period of 3 years.
As part of the pilot, over 1,000 vehicles in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and three other cities have been added.
For this, a majority of vehicles were sourced from Maruti Suzuki India. Ola is in advanced talks with leading car manufacturers and financial institutions to enable this model for over a 100,000 driver partners by the end of 2016, the company said in a statement.
“By December 2015, at least 10,000 cars are expected to be on-road under the leasing model. Ola will be investing Rs 500 crore to begin with, and will raise funds independently for this subsidiary in the time to come,” the company said.
With the leasing programme, drivers can join the Ola platform with a minimal joining fee of Rs 35,000 as against a significantly higher down payment that is paid on availing a loan.