Last mile delivery driving demand for electric vehicles

Amazon, Hindustan Unilever, Swiggy, Coca-Cola, Zomato, Amul, Flipkart, BigBasket and Bisleri are among the larger companies switching to EVs to service consumers and retailers.

“We have started EVs for last-mile deliveries for ice-cream vending,” said Jayen Mehta, managing director of India’s largest dairy maker Amul, which sells ice-cream, milk, butter and cheese. “Our milk distributors too are using EVs in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab.”

The ecommerce sector is leaning heavily toward electric three-wheelers. “The operating costs are about a fraction of diesel or CNG-driven ones, translating into substantial savings for operators,” said Amitabh Saran, cofounder of electric three-wheeler company Altigreen, which has supplied EVs to Amazon, Flipkart, BigBasket, HUL, Bisleri and Coca-Cola. “Even if we were to carve out use cases which require heavier payloads and exports, the market size is still about 1.2-1.3 million units per annum. India has not yet explored formats for three-wheelers fully. The potential is huge.”