Mumbai: Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has joined hands with Uber to run electric vehicles on the latter's platformin several Indian cities.

Hundreds of vehicles will be deployed in the capital and Hyderabad, which will be subsequently expanded to other cities.

Mahindra's electric vehicles on the Uber platform will be the e2oPlus hatch and the eVerito sedan.

The tie-up with Uber comes just days after the Mahindra group's e-vehicle arm Mahindra Electric joined hands with car rental firm Zoomcar to run the e2oPlus vehicles on the latter's platform in Hyderabad.

In May, Ola - Uber's principal rival in India - and Mahindra teamed up with the central government to build an electric mass mobility system in Nagpur. The pilot project commmenced with a fleet of 200, including 100 of Mahindra's e2oPlus vehicles

M&M said that over the years there had been a strong deployment of Mahindra vehicles on Uber's platform.

Mahindra is also a key financier for Uber's driver partners through Mahindra Finance.

"Electric vehicle adoption is clearly gaining momentum in India. As the pioneers of electric vehicles in the country, we would like to be at the forefront, leading this change toward smart and sustainable mobility.

"Our collaboration with Uber is an important next step to help accelerate the large scale adoption of electric vehicles on shared mobility platforms, and meet the nation's vision for such vehicles," said Pawan Goenka, managing director of Mahindra & Mahindra, on Friday.

According to the company, through the collaboration, driver partners on the Uber app can avail themselves of a package that will include Mahindra electric vehicles at competitive prices, attractive financing and insurance premium apart from comprehensive maintenance packages from M&M and its associates.

The partners are also planning to work with public and private players who are in the process of setting up a common use charging ecosystem across multiple locations in the cities.

M&M added that it would support driver education and training related to various aspects of electric vehicles.

EESL tender

M&M is planning to bid for the second stage of the tender for supplying 9,500 electric vehicles to state-run Energy Efficiency Services (EESL), Goenka said on Friday.

The order for the second phase will be issued after the completion of deliveries of 500 electric vehicles in the first phase by November 30.

M&M had earlier said that it would have to take a "hard look" whether it would be justifiable to participate in the second phase of the tender as it was finding it difficult to match the per unit price being offered by Tata Motors.

Tata Motors had quoted the lowest price of Rs 10.16 lakh, exclusive of the GST, for the tender.

Subsequently, the Mahindras also decided to participate in the tender.