Maharashtra to ask Amazon, Uber, others to go electric soon

THE western Indian state of Maharashtra, one of the country’s most developed ones, will offer companies such as Amazon and Uber new incentives to make their delivery fleets electric-driven ahead of a 2025 target for cleaner air, its energy minister told Reuters.

Maharashtra, which is home to India’s financial capital Mumbai and an important market for e-commerce, ride-hailing and food-delivery companies. In 2021, it asked such companies to electrify 25 per cent of their fleet by the year 2025.

State environment and climate change minister Aaditya Thackeray, son of chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, told the news outlet in an interview that Maharashtra now wants to bring the green target forward by offering the companies higher incentives for bulk purchase of electric vehicles (EVs).

“We are trying to be on the earlier side of 2025 and see if companies can get certain more incentives and move sooner. This not only benefits us in terms of cleaner air but also benefits them in terms of economies and their revenue models,” he said.

Companies Maharashtra is likely to approach in the next month include Amazon, Uber, Walmart’s Flipkart, Softbank Group-backed Ola and food-delivery companies Swiggy and Zomato.

Maharashtra's Shiv Sena-led government's push comes weeks after New Delhi, India’s capital which has been seriously plagued by the pollution problem, issued strict draft rules for companies to get a licence only if a certain percentage of their new fleet is electrically-operated.

The state is yet to make its offer to the companies and Amazon, Flipkart, Uber, Ola, Zomato and Swiggy did not immediately respond to questions that Reuters asked them about the possibility of speeding up the electrification process.

Amazon, Flipkart, Zomato and Swiggy previously set out EV targets for 2025 and 2030 while Uber is working with EV manufacturers to introduce electrification in its fleet.

However, some industry executives have expressed concern that lack of affordable and long-range vehicles and insufficient charging infrastructure could make the shift towards EVs expensive.

“When one state makes such a move it becomes a template for others to follow without fully understanding the business implications,” an executive with a fleet company said on the condition of anonymity.

Thackeray, who is spearheading the state’s broader climate-change agenda, said he is aware of the challenges and wants to make Maharashtra a leading EV manufacturer.