India Inc biggies turbocharge plans to move logistics into electric lane

New Delhi: Top companies are revising their fleet electrification targets upwards, accelerating the shift to green logistics following the Prime Minister's appeal last week to reduce consumption of fossil fuels and go electric.

PepsiCo, which launched its EV Green Corridor on the Kosi-Pataudi route this March in partnership with EV technology company Kalyani Powertrain, is expanding the model on additional routes, with nearly 30% of its plant-to-warehouse shuttles transitioning to green by year-end. The beverage and snack maker currently logs 480,000 km annually with electric vehicles.

Car maker leader Maruti Suzuki is looking to cut its fuel consumption by moving as much as 35% of its vehicles from factories to dealerships via railways over the next five years, from about 26% currently. Consumer goods giant Hindustan Unilever said the company has transitioned more than 97% of the energy used in its operations to renewables.


A PepsiCo spokesperson said the company's partners including transporters and distributors are setting up charging infrastructure at distributor points to create a green corridor. "For such operations, large container EVs had to come in at an economically viable costs, which is why we adopted retrofitted EVs developed with Kalyani Powertrain's support," she said.

Maruti Suzuki has invested more than ₹1,370 crore to develop railway sidings at its Hansalpur and Manesar plants, set up rail yards at key logistics hubs and procure specialised automotive rakes. "Going forward, we aim to increase the share of rail-based vehicle dispatches to 35% by FY2030-31 and plan to establish an in-plant siding at our new Kharkhoda facility. This would further help reduce carbon footprint, lower fuel consumption and ease overall road congestion," Managing Director and CEO Hisashi Takeuchi said.

A Hindustan Unilever spokesperson said through strategic partnerships, the company is "progressively scaling up the use of electric vehicles in our end-to-end supply chain network".

Dabur India Supply Chain head Samrat Sehgal said the company is accelerating its shift to green logistics. "We have already deployed a fleet of 40-50 EVs across our operations. In addition, we are also piloting retrofitted vehicles within our supply chain and look forward to scaling these initiatives rapidly. We have significantly increased our use of rail transport, achieving a threefold increase in rail utilisation as part of our strategic shift towards more sustainable logistics," Sehgal said.

The consumer goods company has also commenced discussions with vehicle manufacturers and a few startups to deploy higher-capacity EVs through its logistics partners, he said. The transition to green logistics is gaining momentum across industries. This is boosting demand for electric commercial vehicle makers.

Tata Motors, the country's largest commercial vehicle maker, said it has so far delivered 17,000 electric small commercial vehicles (SCVs) and that the numbers are growing. "We're seeing steady traction across corporates, ecommerce, FMCG and municipal use cases," said Pinaki Haldar, vice-president and head of its small commercial vehicle and pickup business. "Our electric SCV volumes in FY26 have doubled year-on-year, with over 2,400 units in Q4...the electric mix in our SCV portfolio has risen to around 7% in April 2026 from around 4% in Q3 FY26."