Amazon to boost e-rickshaws sales in India [Jan 20, 2020]
American e-tail giant Amazon last week had announced an investment of USD 1 billion for digitising small and medium businesses, and the creation of one million jobs by 2025 and now it is preparing to introduce 10,000 EVs into its delivery fleet globally in 2022 and one lakh vehicles by 2030
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos tweeted a short video showcasing a fleet of new electric delivery vehicles for the India market. "We're rolling out our new fleet of electric delivery rickshaws. Fully electric. Zero carbon," Bezos wrote in his tweet. Amazon, in a statement, said it piloted electric vehicles in several cities across India in 2019 and is now expanding this initiative across the country. It added that learnings from the pilot have helped the company create scalable and long-term EV variants to build this large fleet. Amazon has also announced that it will include 10,000 EVs in its fleet of delivery vehicles by 2025.
A rival to Amazon, Flipkart delivery EVs are deployed in cities like Delhi, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru.
In 2020, Amazon-vehicles will operate in over 20 cities of India - Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Nagpur, and Coimbatore, among others. These EVs are in addition to the global commitment of one lakh EVs in the delivery fleet by 2030 announced in the Climate Pledge signed by Amazon.
Amazon India said it has been working with several Indian OEMs to build a fleet of vehicles that ensure sustainable and safe deliveries of customer orders. The government's focus to encourage the adoption of electric vehicles in the country, and steps towards setting up of charging infrastructure with the FAME 2 policy has helped the company accelerate and chart its vision for EVs in India, it added.
Potential of e-rickshaws :
India is one of the few markets in the world where electric rickshaws have flourished. In fact, in November 2018, India became the largest EV market .India is all set to beat the US when it comes to electric vehicles (EVs) prices.So dominant are three-wheeled EVs in India that in 2018, Bloomberg reported that the number of e-rickshaws in India outnumbered battery-powered passenger cars in China. By 2023, the prices of EVs in India will become competitive with those for petrol and diesel vehicles, at least seven years before that happens in the US, according to a report by US-based Rocky Mountain Institute’s (RMI) on emerging battery technologies.
India E-Rickshaw market crossed USD 2.5 billion mark in 2018 and now the market is projected to reach 935500 units by 2024, registering a CAGR of 15.9% during the forecast period