Indian Companies Embrace Electric Mobility to Reduce Air Pollution

Owing to the rising air pollution in India, the government along with various industries are adapting eco-friendly strategies, including e-mobility to improve air quality in the country. In Union Budget 2019-20, the Modi-led government allotted INR 100 crore for electric vehicle fund. Alongside this, the government had reserved an additional of INR 50 crore for state electric vehicle fund, which was deallocated from environmental compensation charge. 

In June this year, Delhi government also proclaimed the ‘Discover Electric Delhi’ pilot program. Under this program, 1K electric vehicles for conveyance would be deployed in the city in the following year. 

As a part of this program, more than thirty delivery firms will be switching to electric vehicles. The program does not target one specific industry but includes an amalgamation of different industries, including logistics companies, power distributors and online delivery firms among others, according to the daily news, Inc42. 

The government-run program has borne positive results and in turn, many companies have started adopting the e-mobility program in the past few months. 

Companies Switching to E-mobility from Petrol and Diesel Vehicles

It is the need of the hour to halt diminishing air quality of India and as a result, many firms are coming forward and embracing electric vehicles for mobility. Also, some firms are moving a step ahead to avert environment degradation by adopting eco-friendly business practices. E-commerce firm, Amazon India is one of them as the company has lately vowed to halt packaging products with single-use plastic. The company decided that it will instead utilize paper cushions for packaging as they can be recycled, according to the International daily news, Euronews.   

Recently, Bengaluru-based unicorn firm, BigBasket has proclaimed that it is adopting e-mobility for its delivery across all metro cities. 

The company said it currently has 150 e-vans and 50 e-bikes. It aims to increase this to 1000 vans and 2000 bikes within the next year, as reported by the daily news, Inc42. 

According to the cited media report, online grocery firm said that it has worked with multiple e-van OEMs like Gayam Motors and Euler Motors and certified them for their operations. It is now progressively introducing e-bikes from brands including Hero, Okinawa, Li-on, and Greaves Cotton in its operations.

In June 2019, Walmart backed, Flipkart planned to replace nearly 40 per cent of its fleet of delivery vans with EV by March 2020, according to the daily news, Mint. 

As a primary step, nearly 160 electric vans will be coming on the road by the cessation of this year, in turn, making the e-commerce company the foremost company in the country to use electric mobility on a large scale. The company is presently employing 10 electric vehicles in New Delhi, 8 EVs in Hyderabad and 30 e-bikes in Bengaluru, according to the cited media report. 

Besides this, there are various other companies that have begun using electric vehicles in their delivery fleet. Zomato, Grofers, Lenskart, Blue Dart, McDonald’s and DHL are some of the companies.