Amazon India on Tuesday said it has partnered Mahindra Electric to strengthen its commitment to electric mobility in the country, as it looks to add 10,000 electric vehicles in its local delivery fleet by 2025.
According to the e-commerce major, Mahindra’s Treo Zor vehicles have been deployed in seven cities–Bengaluru, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Indore, and Lucknow–so far, with Amazon India’s network of delivery service partners.
These are in addition to Amazon.com Inc.’s commitment of having 100,000 electric vehicles (EVs) in its global delivery fleet by 2030. Rival Flipkart, last year, pledged that it will convert its its entire delivery fleet in India to electric by 2030.
“The partnership between Amazon India and Mahindra Electric is a welcome step which reaffirms India’s significant progress in the e-mobility industry, and highlights the role of auto-makers and e-commerce companies to achieve our environmental sustainability goals. We are confident that the government’s efforts to encourage the adoption of electric vehicles in the country, and steps taken towards setting up of infrastructure backed by policy measures will help more companies adopt e-mobility,” said Nitin Gadkari, union minister of road transport and highways.
Amazon India, in a statement, said the Indian government’s focus on encouraging the adoption of electric mobility, with awareness campaigns such as ‘Go Electric’, and steps taken to set up charging infrastructure with the FAME 2 policy, has helped the company accelerate and chart its vision for EVs in India.
In September 2019, Amazon became one of the first signatories of the Climate Pledge, which states that the company will be a net zero carbon by 2040 across its businesses.
“The expansion of our Electric Vehicle fleet to 10,000 vehicles by 2025 is an integral milestone in our journey to become a sustainability leader in the industry. We continue to work with several OEMs to build a fleet of ‘Made in India’ electric vehicles that ensure sustainable and safe deliveries of customer orders,” said Akhil Saxena, VP, Customer Fulfilment Operations, APAC, MENA & LATAM, Amazon.
“We are proud to partner with Amazon in deploying Mahindra Treo Zor EV in their delivery partners’ fleet. We believe this will redefine India’s logistics and last-mile delivery needs and at the same time help Mahindra and Amazon to achieve our sustainability goals,” said Mahesh Babu, managing director and chief executive, Mahindra Electric Mobility Ltd.
Earlier this month, Amazon India announced the commencement of its first manufacturing line in India for making Fire TV Stick devices. It will partner contract manufacturer Cloud Network Technology, a subsidiary of Foxconn, and production will start later this year from Chennai.
In the past, Amazon India has pledged to invest $1 billion to digitise 10 million small and medium businesses, help Indian businesses sell worldwide, thereby enabling $10 billion in cumulative exports, and create an additional 1 million jobs by 2025.
Source: Live mint
