Lack of charging infra may delay India’s EV procurement plan
NEWDELHI: Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL), the nodal agency for procuring electric vehicles on behalf of the Indian government, may once again have to def er the deadline for procurement of electric vehicles from Tat a Motors Ltd and Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd. There ason—lack of battery charging infrastructure in the country.
A top executive at EESL said deliveries will be received once Exicom Tele-Systems Ltd, the firm that has won the tender for battery charging infrastructure starts building them.
The vehicles were supposed to be delivered by November 30 and were subsequently postponed to December 30.
The person said the government will start taking deliveries of vehicles from Tat a Motors and Mahindra in another 14 days.
“The token vehicles have been sent to us by both the companies. Currently, we are in the process of setting up charging stations and in another couple of weeks we are hopeful of starting the delivery,” the EESL executive said requesting anonymity.
As part of a plan to procure 10,000 vehicles, EESL floated a tender for procuring 500 electric vehicles, which the government will use to replace the diesel and petrol run vehicles in its fleet in the next three to four years.
Tata Motors emerged as the preferred bidder but subse- quently Mahindra and Mahindra also decided to match the price quoted by its Mumbai- based rival and agreed to deliver 150 of the 500 vehicles required.
Tata Motors will supply 350 units of the electric variant of its compact sedan T igor while M& M will deliver 150 units of E-Verito (a compact sedan).
The fact that delivery of the vehicles has been delayed due to dear th of charging infrastructure is itself a testament to the fact that existence of charging infrastructure is imperative for the launch of electric vehicles and the establishment of charging stations should precede the introduction of such vehicles and not the other way round.
Automotive industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufactures (Siam) and automobile manufacturers have been emphasis in go nth is point relentlessly since the central government has started to urge vehicle manufacturers to start developing electric vehicles.
According to Mahesh Babu, chief executive of Ma hind ra Electric, the company is ready with its 150 vehicles for delivery to EESL and the first lot was ready for delivery on November 15, as per the tender terms.
According to a spokesperson of Tata Motors, the company has already handed over the first lot of the Tigor EV sto EES Land will commence regular deliveries in line with EESL’s requirements. The production ramp-up at the Sanand factory is going on according to plan.