CHENNAI: EV plans are getting a mega charge from the government which plans to bulk buy electric buses, e-cars and SUVs and e-three wheelers in the next two years to drive up EV usage in India.
According to Mahua Acharya, MD&CEO, Convergence Energy Services Ltd (CESL), the mandate is to buy as many as 3400 e-buses, around 1,200 e-cars and SUVs and around 100,000 e-three wheelers over the next 12-18 months using bulk purchases, Fame 2 and state subsidies in order to get a better price.
CESL will offer clubbed tenders and bulk orders to enable OEMs like Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, M&M, Piaggio and others to scale up their EV production. This would also help increase EV penetration in India, she added.
The tenders, said Acharya, focus on three types of vehicles. For the fleet used in various government departments including city police, there is already “a demand of 1,200 vehicles in the last couple of months,” she said. That includes bulk orders like 226 vehicles for the Kolkata police and another 700 odd vehicles from the Kerala government and Coal India. CESL is working with “vehicle leasing companies” to process these orders.
On the e-bus front, CESL is conducting a “grand challenge tender across 9 cities” (Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Pune, Ahmedabad and Surat). The new concept here is to allow EV makers to bid on a pay-per-km concept including vehicle cost, servicing and operations cost but offer bulk volumes and Fame 2 subsidies along with state carrots to get better prices. “The grand tender will be floated in the next couple of days,” said Acharya.
The most ambitious plan is for three-wheelers where a tender for a total 100,000 vehicles is now live. These are auto rickshaws and cargo vehicles like garbage dumpsters and here too CESL is working with NBFCs who will buy the vehicles and lease them out to auto drivers or state service providers like garbage collectors, she added. “With Fame 2 and state subsidy, the electric three wheeler prices are now down to ICE three-wheeler levels and bulk orders can get better prices,” said Acharya.
CESL has a target of deploying 300,000 three wheelers by 2023 of which the first 100,000 should be on the roads in 18-24 months. “We are hobbled by companies not being able to supply enough numbers,” said Acharya. For buses, the target is to get the 3,472 buses deployed in the next 12 months. CESL plans to club Fame 2, state subsidies as well as clean air funds that many cities have to offer better procurement price for the EVs.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
