Grab partners BYD to expand electric vehicle fleet offering across South-east Asia

GRAB is teaming up with Chinese automaker BYD to provide up to 50,000 BYD electric vehicles (EVs) to its driver-partners across South-east Asia.

The collaboration is expected to boost EV adoption in the region, which has been set back by high upfront costs, said both companies on Wednesday (Jan 15).

Grab’s fleet partners and driver-partners will gain access to BYD vehicles at “the most competitive rates”, with extended warranties on the EVs’ batteries, they noted.

Drivers will also have the option to rent the EVs from Grab’s fleet partners or opt for financing support through the company’s car ownership schemes.

The partnership also aims to increase the availability of green vehicles to Grab users. In Singapore and Thailand, users will be able to opt for green vehicles at no additional charge, said Grab and BYD.

Chuck Kim, managing director of group business development at Grab, said: “This collaboration enables us to drive the transition to EVs forward by lowering the financial barriers that are often associated with EVs, and in the long run deliver economic benefits to our driver-partners which may include fuel cost savings.”

Additionally, the companies will work together to integrate deep tech between BYD’s vehicles and Grab’s platform and services.

As part of this tie-up, the Grab driver application will be installed in the head unit of BYD vehicles.

Drivers will be able to view their jobs, navigation and chats on a larger screen, instead of having to refer to their smartphones, said the companies.

Real-time insights will also be provided to drivers, who can then use the data to improve their driving behaviour.

Grab will be able to use real-time data from BYD vehicles, such as wiper signals and travel speed, to better match drivers with high-demand areas and provide more accurate estimated times of arrivals for rides.

The partnership will improve navigation and routing with the help of Grab’s hyperlocal map data and services.

The countries that will benefit are Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Some of the car models involved are the Denza D9 and BYD Atto3.