IC engine vehicles are remnant of past

New Delhi: Internal combustion engine vehicles are a remnant of the past and new transport solutions like electric vehicles are trying to fix this archaic system by making mobility universally accessible and sustainable, Ola co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal said on Thursday. Spelling out Ola's mobility vision in a blog, Aggarwal noted that the company is building a new ecosystem keeping the customer at the core.

"The IC engine, automobiles and the related ecosystem is a remnant of the past and assumes unsustainably high ownership of vehicles manufactured by OEMs and sold through dealers. Consumers have been downgraded to being just a cog in this giant wheel. This is best indicated by Henry Ford's - You can have whatever colour you want, as long as it's black. Try saying that to an e-commerce customer today!" he stated.

In India, just two per cent (30 million) people own a four-wheeler and only 12 per cent (160 million) have a two-wheeler, Aggarwal noted.

"That means more than a billion people in India have been shut out of mobility by this system!" he said. New mobility is fixing this archaic system by making mobility universally accessible, sustainable, personalised and convenient, he added. "To do this both shared and personal mobility will grow significantly in India through a combination of purpose-built EVs lowering costs, digital retail driving convenience and the cloud enabling personalisation," Aggarwal said.