A veteran e-commerce company Amazon has announced its plans to deploy 10,000 electric delivery rickshaws to its fleet of goods in India by 2025. Amazon said in a statement that it has tested electric vehicles in many cities of India in 2019, and now it is going to expand it across the country.
The 10,000 EVs will include both 3-wheeler rickshaws as well as 4-wheeled vehicles, which have been designed and manufactured by Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) in India. The company said that in 2020, these vehicles would operate in over 20 cities of India – Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Nagpur, and Coimbatore, and this number will continue to grow.
The Amazon announcement comes days after India Jeff Bezos announced an investment of $1 billion to small and medium businesses digitize and create one million jobs by 2025.
The company wants to reduce carbon emissions and the environmental impact of its delivery vehicles. It is working with many Indian companies to build a fleet of vehicles that ensure sustainable and safe deliveries of customer orders. Amazon India hasn’t revealed the other details of their electric vehicles.
The Government of India is also taking all important steps to use electric vehicles these days. Under the Fame 2 campaign, charging stations are being set up in the country as well as the infrastructure is being prepared according to the electric vehicle.
Amazon is not the only e-commerce giant announcing the adoption of electric vehicles for its fleet of delivery. In June last year, Flipkart has announced its goal to replace 40% of its pickup trucks with electric vehicles by March 2020.
