Delivery giants find there aren't many models available that can be deployed at scale, and what supply there is can't keep up with demand.
Sourabh Saini, a delivery driver for Indian online supermarket BigBasket, is thrilled by the attention he gets as he zips around Noida, a satellite city on the outskirts of Delhi, in his three-wheeled electric van.
“I like how my electric van always gets noticed,” said Saini, who made the switch from fossil fuels about eight months ago as part of BigBasket’s push to electrify 90% of its fleet. “Customers are surprised at how silent it is. They get curious about my experience of driving an EV and start asking about its price and range.”
That makes him somewhat of a novelty in India, where BigBasket and online giants Amazon.com Inc. and Flipkart -- who could hold the key to getting more gas-guzzlers off India’s roads -- are struggling to source enough vehicles to meet ambitious targets to electrify their delivery fleets.
“It does not plug and play,” said Mahesh Pratap Singh, head of sustainability and responsibility at Flipkart. “When we scanned the landscape there wasn’t much from a supply and reliability perspective, or a viable commercial option out there. That led us to believe you’ve got to put one big bold ambition out there and really nudge the entire ecosystem and shape it, rather than just being a consumer.”
The nature of online delivery operations -- quick trips from a central hub where a standard charging solution can be installed -- is well suited to EV adoption, overcoming the range anxiety and shortage of charging infrastructure that has proven a roadblock to general take-up. Electric vehicles account for less than 1% of India’s annual car sales, compared to about 6% in China.
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