Zomato to shift entire delivery fleet to electric by 2030

Bengaluru: Gurugram-based food aggregator Zomato said it will be converting its entire delivery fleet to electric by 2030, as it joins Climate Group’s global electric mobility initiative.

The IPO-bound company claimed that currently electric vehicles (EV) comprise a small fraction of its delivery fleet and are leveraged by delivery partners in only select cities of Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai.

The company also said it is already actively working with a few EV players to design pilots and create business models that could facilitate a faster transition towards a viable mobility solution for deliveries.

“The current EV fleet is a small fraction of the active fleet of delivery partners, and we understand that getting to 100% adoption of EVs will not be easy but is essential in the long run. At the moment, the adoption rate is very low for us and for the two-wheeler industry in general. We believe key barriers that currently impact adoption include limited battery range, lack of charging infrastructure, higher upfront costs and lack of trust in new technology.

Over the past year, several e-commerce firms have expressed their interest to add EVs in their delivery fleet.

For instance, earlier in February, this year, Flipkart said that it plans to have a fleet of more than 25,000 electric vehicles by 2030 in line with its aim to transition its entire logistics fleet across cities to green energy vehicles.

It has partnered with EV makers such as Hero Electric, Mahindra Electric, and Piaggio to make customized vehicles, and has started with deploying more than 450 EVs across select cities.

Flipkart-rival, Amazon India also said in February that it has partnered with Mahindra Electric to add 10,000 EVs in its local delivery fleet by 2025.

Globally, Amazon Inc. has expressed its commitment to add 100,000 EVs in its delivery fleet by 2030.

“We want to actively aid the transition to EVs by enabling the ecosystem – EV players, battery manufacturers, and the government and want to be accountable for the impact we create and contribute to finding solutions for the world’s most important environmental challenges, that are a by-product of our own progress,” Zomato added in its blog.

To reduce carbon emissions, close to 20% of all Zomato orders are currently delivered on bicycles, the company had said in April.