Electric vehicles are gaining preference over other modes of transport, especially in the logistics industry in India. The benefits of running an EV, coupled with incentives given by the government to boost their use is proving useful for e-commerce and the related logistics firms. Hence, many have already announced their plans to add EVs in their fleet in considerable numbers. Grofers, has now joined the bandwagon, having said that it is aiming to deploy 500 electric vehicles within this year.
Grofers co-founder Saurabh Kumar mentioned the reason behind this – “Our experiment was largely successful. We were able to reduce the last-mile delivery costs by 50% in places where the EVs were deployed.”
The trial phase that he mentions initially comprised of 50 EVs running in Delhi, which was eventually increased to 100 and another 50 in Jaipur. The company now plans to use similar EVs in 13 Indian cities for its last mile delivery operations. An ambitious timeline has been set for this too – by the end of 2019. The company’s analysis, however, proves that the move is financially sound. Grofers estimates that 500 electric vehicles will be able to cut down their last-mile delivery costs to half!
There is, however, still work to be done. While the operations cost will be cut to half, an initial investment is required to run these EVs. This majorly comes in the form of charging infrastructure. Kumar mentioned that the infrastructure will constitute a major part of the company’s investments towards the cause, making sure all its distribution centres are equipped with them.
In addition to the delivery fleet, Grofers is also eyeing to use EVs for its internal transportation. It is said to be working with the government to use four-wheeler EVs for transferring its products from warehouses to distribution centres in the cities.
(Representative Image: BCCL)
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Grofers is not the only embracing the EV revolution. Flipkart recently announced that it will be replacing 40% of its delivery fleet with an electric ones by the end of March next year. Similarly, Swiggy announced plans to deploy EVs in 10 cities for its delivery services, having claimed that the new EVs saved the running cost of its fleet by 40%.
The government is bent on the idea too. To create an emission free transport ecosystem in the country, vehicles being used for such logistics services have to be addressed. The centre might be looking to mandate the vehicles used for such services to be electric soon, as in the case of cab aggregators like Ola and Uber. The report, citing approval, will direct all cab aggregators to have 40% of their fleet as electric by 2026.