IPO-bound Zomato commits to 100% adoption of Electric Vehicles by 2030

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Food delivery platform Zomato, which plans to list in the public markets in India this year, has said it will adopt electric vehicles for 100% of its fleet by 2030, in a bid to build a more sustainable company.

In a blog post on June 5th, 2021, Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal said the company has partnered with the Climate Group's global electric mobiliy initiative, EV100, with EVs already being used in cities such as Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

'The current EV fleet is a small fraction of the active fleet of delivery partners, and we understand that getting to 100% adoption of EVs will not be easy, but is essential in the long run' Goyal said in the blog.

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He added that the adoption rate is very low for it and for the two-wheeler industry in general due to barriers such as limited battery range, lack of charging infrastructure, higher upfront costs and lack of trust in new technology.

"However, given the rapid innovation in this field and positive push by the government, we expect a much faster transition to EVs for the two wheeler industry over time" he said in the blog.

Zomato said it is already actively working with a few EV players to design pilots and create business models that could facilitate a faster transition towards a viable mobility solution for deliveries. ​

Walmart-owned Flipkart too recently announced that it will deploy more than 25,000 electric vehicles by 2030, as part of its commitment to transition its logistics fleet to Electric Vehicles after joining the Climate Group’s EV100 initiative. ​

Flipkart has already started deploying 2-wheeler and 3-wheeler electric vehicles in multiple locations for delivery across the country, including in Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Guwahati and Pune, to name a few.

At the same time, Amazon India too had said that its delivery fleet will have 10,000 electric vehicles (EVs) in India by 2025, which is in addition to the global commitment of 1 lakh electric vehicles in the delivery fleet by 2030, as part of its Climate Pledge.

Zomato filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus with the market regulator in April, kicking off one of India's most anticipated internet initial public offerings (IPOs) in a tumultuous year.

After the initial Covid shock in March last year, Zomato had said in September 2020 that the online food delivery space has recovered and even exceeded pre-Covid levels in a number of large pockets in India, as more people embrace online ordering.

Goyal had said then that the tailwinds for food delivery businesses are clearly visible, and that he believes the growth of the sector will accelerate post-vaccine. He also said the burn rate is very low and that its market share is accelerating in all regions.