Flipkart plans to electrify 40% of its delivery fleet by March

One of India’s largest e-commerce websites, Flipkart, recently revealed its plans to replace 40 percent of its delivery vehicles with all-electric vehicles by March, 2020. The company started the electrification of its delivery vehicles with electric bicycles in its Bangalore circuit.

The Senior Vice-President of Ekart and Marketplace at Flipkart, Amitesh Jha states, “The induction of EVs across our supply chain is one of the major steps towards sustainability. We see tremendous growth opportunity in electric freight mobility from a greener supply chain perspective, which will play a key role in building a robust supply chain for the future. These efforts will help us meaningfully contribute towards electric mobility by reducing our dependence on conventional power sources while bringing cost efficiencies for the business. In this process, we also hope to create an ecosystem for the adoption of electric mobility in India.”

Flipkart estimates that the electric last-mile delivery vehicles with help it cut carbon emissions by over 50 percent. “We believe these small but meaningful steps in this direction will go a long way in paving the way for larger adoption of EVs in the country,” states Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Group CEO, Flipkart.

“As a committed corporate citizen, we at Flipkart understand our responsibility regarding the environment and running our business in a more sustainable way. Our vision is to replace a significant portion of our last-mile delivery with EVs in the coming years and contribute towards clean and sustainable mobility. Our team is working with local ecosystem partners to help them co-design concepts for electric vehicles best suited for the growing e-commerce industry.” He added.

The initiative taken by Flipkart could encourage other e-commerce websites to adopt EVs as well. The Government has also taken steps to encourage the purchase of EVs through its FAME II scheme.