EESL’s procurement of 250 Electric Vehicles
Energy Efficiency Services (EESL) recently selected Tata Motors and Hyundai Motor India in an international bidding process to procure 250 electric vehicles (EVs) for government entities. Tata Motors will supply 150 Nexon electric compact SUVs and Hyundai will supply 100 Kona electric premium SUVs. The total tender value is Rs 41.6 crore. For the procurement, EESL is going to utilise the $5-million (around Rs 37-crore) grant that was recently provided to it by the Asian Development Bank.
Key points
- These EVs will replace the petrol and diesel vehicles of the Central and state governments.
- This is Tata Motor’s second partnership with EESL in the EV space.
- In 2017, Tata Motors along with Mahindra & Mahindra, won the first EESL tender to supply 10,000 EVs, to be used by government officials. However, a number of these vehicles could not be put to use because of low range.
- EESL has procured 1,547 EVs so far, of which 692 were from Tata Motors, 832 from Mahindra, and 10 each from Hyundai and MG Motor.
- Vehicles procured by EESL would be used to service a order of 300 long-range EVs from The Agency for Non-Conventional Energy and Rural Technology
- Kerala will be supplied in the initial phase.
Significance
A shift to EVs will reduce dependence on oil imports and promote power capacity addition in India. This will greatly enhance the energy security of the country and will lead to reduction in Green House Gases (GHG) emissions from the transport sector.
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Month: Current Affairs - September, 2020