E-commerce giant Flipkart on Wednesday announced that it will deploy 25000 electric vehicles in its supply chain by the year 2030, bringing the company a step closer to its vision of achieving 100% electrification of its first and last mile delivery fleet.
The company stated, “This is in line with Flipkart’s public commitment to transition to electric vehicles across its city logistics fleet and help set up charging infrastructure around delivery hubs and offices to fast track the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in India”.
Walmart-owned Flipkart has partnered with Hero Electric, Mahindra Electric and Piaggio to procure specific vehicles to be deployed. It has already started deploying two-wheeler and three-wheeler electric vehicles in multiple locations for delivery across the country, including in Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Guwahati and Pune, to name a few.
“Electric mobility can benefit multiple ecosystem stakeholders, not just in e-commerce but in many other industries. Electrification of the logistics fleet is a key part of Flipkart’s larger sustainability goal and in line with our commitment to the Climate Group’s EV100 initiative.”
~Amitesh Jha, Senior Vice-President of Ekart and Marketplace
Further he added, “In this journey of making our logistics fleet completely electric by 2030, we will collaborate and work with leading local players to procure and deploy electric vehicles while supporting the required infrastructure growth. We understand the relevance of electric mobility in achieving both business and sustainability goals and are committed to paving the way for greater adoption of EVs across the country.”
Earlier in Jan 2020, Flipkarts’ rival Amazon also announced deployment of 10,000 EVs on India’s roads by 2050. Since then, Amazon has been working to firm up initial orders from manufacturers such as Mahindra Electric and Kinetic Green, among others.
Earlier this month, Mahindra Electric had received the largest order for EVs, estimated to be around 1,000 units, from Amazon’s logistics partners.
