Yamaha Motor's leasing company forays into e-scooters by investing in Hyderabad-based start-up

Moto Business Service India (MBSI), the leasing arm of the Tokyo-based Yamaha Motor, is foraying into the two-wheeler electric vehicle segment by partnering with Hyderabad-based start-up Only Electriq Solutions. The former has invested an undisclosed amount in the latter, according to the company. 
 
This partnership will commence with the launch of 1250 units of e-scooters and 50 units of e-cycles which will be taken on rent by the delivery riders of companies like Swiggy, Zepto and Zomato. The electric vehicles will be tracked by using Electriq’s web and app-based IoT-enabled platform. 
 
India is seeing a rapid growth in sales of EVs as manufacturers and users rush to switch from gasoline-powered vehicles due to the rising cost of fuel, said Shoji Shiraishi, Managing Director of MBSI while launching the two-wheeler EVs. 
 
He further added, “We are extremely excited to officially kick start our operations in the EV sector in Hyderabad by partnering with Electriq… We will continue to onboard electric vehicles across multiple cities and generate employment avenues for the youth of India. We plan to work with more mobility companies in the future and to transform the overall shared mobility space in India by bringing our financial and strategic experience from our stakeholders.”
 
While Yamaha has begun to execute its plans with Hyderabad, it will gradually take the total number of vehicles launched to more than 5000 across different cities by the end of this fiscal year. 
 
Yamaha announced in March this year that it has set up MBSI in a bid to provide vehicle leasing and other support services to tech start-up companies that focus on the shared mobility space in India. This is Yamaha’s 14th investment and some of the other investments include Mother POD, Fae Bikes, Scoo EV, Soujanya Travels and more.
 
MBSI has also partnered with last mile delivery companies in Delhi, Chennai and Bengaluru.