The government operated Energy Efficiency Services (EESL) has announced to procure 20,000 more electric vehicles in next one year confirmed a senior company official. EESL plans to invest around Rs 2,400 crore for the procurement of these electric vehicles.EESL is also likely to sign a memorandum of understandings (MoUs) with the various state Governments including Maharashtra and Gujarat in April 2018 to supply 1,000 and 8,000 electric vehicles respectively.
In a PTI Interview, Saurabh Kumar, MD, EESL said "We have got a good response for this project. Already 100 electric vehicles are operational in Delhi. In total, we will be procuring 20,000 electric vehicles by March 2019 and we are investing around Rs 2,400 crore for buying them." Earlier in the first round of electric car procurement by EESL, Tata Motors and Mahindra had won the tender to supply electric cars for babus. The tender of the second round of vehicle procurement is out and is likely to see more participation.
EESL has already signed the MoU with the Andhra Pradesh government to supply 10,000 cars last month and has already floated another tender of an equal number for this.
"The tender process is progressing well and we would be soon entering into agreements with Maharashtra and Gujarat governments," he added. With these 20,000 electric cars, EESL expects to save over 5 crore liters of fuel every year, leading to a reduction of over 5.6 lakh tonnes of annual carbon dioxide emission.
EESL has also rolled out the plan for setting up charging stations across the country. "We have already laid down 250 charging stations in Delhi and a tender has been floated to set up an additional 2,500 stations across the country," said Kumar.
