NEW DELHI :State-run Convergence Energy Services Ltd (CESL) on Wednesday launched a scheme for the sale of two-wheeled electric vehicles (EVs) for Kerala government employees.
“The programme is custom-designed for employees of the Government of Kerala, and vehicles are made available by CESL through its relationship with vehicle manufacturers," a CESL statement said.
This comes in the backdrop of CESL calling bids for procuring 100,000 electric three-wheelers with an estimated cost of ₹3,000 crore, in the largest such global tender. CESL’s parent firm Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) has been allotted the demand aggregation of electric three-wheelers and electric buses under the government’s ₹10,000 crore Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (Fame) scheme.
“All vehicles will benefit from the central government’s subsidy programme Fame II, which allows customers to access a significant subsidy that brings EVs closer to the cost of their fossil fuel equivalents," the statement said.
CESL aims to have 200,000 two-wheeled EVs and 300,000 three-wheeled EVs across India and is working on a grand challenge among nine major metros to allocate electric buses with as many as 7,408 e-buses expected to be offered under the Fame scheme. The scheme has been extended by two years till 31 March 2024.
In addition to supplying electric two-wheelers to states such as Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Goa, CESL has also been aggregating demand for leasing out and operating three-wheeled EVs for the garbage collection fleet of municipalities across the country, including for Pune Municipal Corporation.
“Deployment of electric two-wheelers (E2W) amongst state government officials is another important step through which the state government aims to generate a demand for 10,000 electric two-wheelers from government officials and state offices across Kerala," the statement said.
This comes at a time when climate change is a clear and present danger as articulated by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.
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