There has been an increased focus on sustainability in supply chains and logistics in the past decade. In Delhi, vehicular emission contribute 38% to the capital’s air pollution and 30% of the city’s registered vehicles operate with e-commerce, food delivery and cab aggregators. The Delhi Government has decided to soon introduce guidelines for fleet electrification of these aggregators with hopes for controlling and cutting down the emissions. The upcoming guidelines will direct the aforesaid players to fully electrify their fleets and the petrol pumps to not give fuel without checking valid Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates. The guidelines will be issued in this week under the Environment (Protection) Act and the switch will be done in a phased manner. The Delhi Electric Vehicles policy – introduced in August 2020 – aims at increasing the EV share in total vehicle sales to 25 percent by 2024, and will optimistically change the face of logistics in Delhi NCR.
As of now, only Flipkart and Fedex have established worldwide targets to convert their last-mile delivery fleets to electric vehicles by 2030 and 2040, respectively. On similar lines, DHL has set a target for electrifying 60% of its fleet.
Electrification in logistics, especially for last-mile deliveries, is a trend that has been on a upward trajectory in India since quite some time now. Even manufacturers of commercial vehicles have been in support of the same and have been introducing commercial EVs variants – including two and three wheelers – to support the cause. 2021 has seen a rise in the production and sale of commercial EVs from both young as well as established brands. On the other hand, there has also been increased support from the organizations involved in creating and maintaining the infrastructure for EVs, to entice players from the logistics industry to make the shift from conventional fuel based vehicles to modern electric vehicles in their respective fleets.
EVs have a substantial advantage over conventional vehicles in reference to the cost of operating as fuel prices continue to surge by the day. Moreover, demand for EVs in the e-commerce and logistics sectors have increased multi-fold as organizations strive to achieve net-zero emissions as a part of sustainable supply chains.
