Uber is entering 100 new Indian cities, beginning with its Bike taxi service, in one of the ride-hailing giant's largest domestic expansions to date — a move that takes its total footprint in the country to 225 cities. The rollout spans 18 states and one Union Territory, stretching from Jammu in the north to Tirunelveli in the south, and from Silchar in the east to Jamnagar in the west.
The expansion, timed around India's Independence Day, is anchored entirely by Uber Bike rather than the company's core car-hailing product, reflecting a deliberate strategy to use two-wheelers as the entry point into smaller Indian cities where car ownership and car-hailing demand remain limited, but where affordable point-to-point mobility is in high demand.
“The opportunity is to understand how each city moves and build the right marketplace around it,” said Rishant Ghosh, Director – Consumer & Growth at Uber India and South Asia, explaining the company's rationale for starting with Bike rather than a broader multimodal launch. “That's why we're starting with Uber Bike,” he added, framing the two-wheeler product as a low-barrier entry point for both riders and drivers in markets where Uber has historically had limited or no presence.
For riders, Uber Bike offers an affordable way to navigate traffic-heavy streets and connect to public transport for first- and last-mile journeys. For drivers, it offers a low-barrier way to earn using an asset — a two-wheeler — that many already own, without the capital outlay a car requires. Uber is also offering a free first ride to new users in the expansion cities for a limited period, a customer-acquisition tactic aimed at introducing app-based mobility to riders who may never have used a ride-hailing app before.
