Centre Mandates Fixed EV Targets For Ride Hailing Aggregators

The central government has mandated ride-hailing aggregators to adhere to the targets fixed for inclusion of electric vehicles (EVs) in their fleet.

These targets would be determined by an appropriate government organisation responsible for regulating air quality or by the state government.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways brought clarity on these rules while it released the Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines (MVAG) 2025 on July 1 (Tuesday).

Additionally, the transport authority has also proposed aggregators to opt for motorcycles that are not used for commercial or public transport purposes for rides to reduce traffic congestion as well as pollution caused by vehicles.

“The state government may allow aggregation of non-transport motorcycles for journey by passengers as shared mobility through aggregators resulting in reduced traffic congestion and vehicular pollution, along-with providing inter alia affordable passenger mobility, hyperlocal delivery, creating livelihood opportunities,” the regulatory body said.

To note, bike taxis have been banned in Karnataka, to which ride hailing platforms and individual bike taxi owners challenged the state government in the Karnataka High Court stating that the service plays an important role in urban mobility and must be allowed to run under existing legal provisions, a week ago.

Meanwhile, in terms of the long-battled ride fares of these platforms, the Centre also permitted to charge a minimum of 50% lower than the base fare and a maximum dynamic pricing of two times the base fare specified by the aggregator.

In March, Ola and Uber denied allegations of charging different prices to Android and iPhone users for the same rides. The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) intervened and ordered an investigation into these claims after receiving complaints and noticing potential discrepancies in the fares displayed on different devices

The mandate also comes at a time when ride-hailing giants have slowly switched to zero-commission model of operations, where ride-hailing platforms let drivers keep 100% of their fare for a small daily or monthly fee.