‘Only Electric Cars By 2030’ A Step Closer: Government To Issue Another Tender For 10,000 E-Vehicles

State-owned Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) will soon issue another tender for 10,000 electric vehicles, nearly a year after its previous order of 10,000 such vehicles, Minister of Power and Renewable Energy R K Singh has said.

Taking the Modi government’s mission of ‘only electric cars by 2030’ a step closer, the company had invited global bids for 10,000 electric sedans in August 2017 to replace the vehicles being used by various government departments. Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra have emerged as successful bidders.

According to the ministry, buying e-vehicles makes economic sense because of the low cost of electric mobility. While the per kilometre cost of electric mobility will be 80 paise, the per kilometre cost of operating a diesel vehicle is Rs 6.5, Singh told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday.

The ministry has said that India can save over five crore litres of fuel every year with the 20,000 electric cars that EESL is buying. This would lead to a reduction of over 5.6 lakh tonnes of annual carbon dioxide emission.

EESL Managing Director Saurabh Kumar has said that the firm needs 500 electric vehicles in Delhi and has laid out charging points for these vehicles at 150 locations in the city. The firm, a joint venture of PSUs, has signed an agreement with Andhra Pradesh government to supply 10,000 electric cars from May onwards and is likely to ink one with Gujarat next week to supply 8,000 e-cars.

Under its National Electric Mobility Mission Plan, the government plans to have at least 400,000 electric vehicles on India’s streets by 2020.