Going Green: Ekart to deliver on electric vehicles

BENGALURU: Ekart, the logistics arm of e-commerce marketplace Flipkart, said it will replace nearly 40% of its last-mile delivery fleet with electric vehicles (EVs) over the next nine months. The company is also setting up charging infrastructure at its hubs, and expects these initiatives to cut carbon emissions by over 50%.

Ekart clocks about a million deliveries a day. “Our team is working with local ecosystem partners to help them co-design concepts for electric vehicles best suited for the growing e-commerce industry,” said Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Group CEO, Flipkart.

Flipkart has currently deployed eight electric vans in Hyderabad, 10 in New Delhi and 30 ebikes in Bengaluru. Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors are two leading manufacturers of electric vans.


EVs will help cut costs, said Amitesh Jha, senior vice president, Ekart and Marketplace at Flipkart. “Electric freight mobility will play a key role in building a robust supply chain for the future and reduce our dependence on conventional power sources,” he said.

Grocery retailer BigBasket uses electric vehicles for deliveries in Hyderabad and Delhi-NCR, and solar power in seven warehouses across Bengaluru, Gurugram and Chennai, founder VS Ramesh told ET. Food delivery app Swiggy too does more than 1.5 million deliveries a month on cycles.

STARTUPS PUSH FOR E MOBILITY
With the government aggressively pushing for a shift to EVs to bring down oil imports and curb pollution, startups are actively working to drive adoption of these vehicles.

Ride-hailing app Ola has been lobbying in favour of electric vehicle regulations, including recommending that the government consider battery swapping and quick charge as appropriate technologies.

“India can leapfrog problems of pollution and energy security by moving to electric mobility, create millions of new jobs and economic opportunity, and lead the world,” said Bhavish Aggarwal, cofounder, Ola.

In March, the government announced an outlay of ?10,000 crore for the second phase of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles scheme, or FAME 2, to boost electric mobility and increase the number of electric vehicles in commercial fleets. The outlay is for three years till 2022.