Saar: The state-run energy service company conducted an auction to procure the first 10,000 EVs last year, with Tata Motors winning the bid and Mahindra finishing as the runner-up

According to a PTI report, EESL, which is short for Energy Efficient Services Ltd, has set an aim to have a fleet of 20,000 EVs (electric vehicles) for its officials. It will be spending a whopping Rs 2,400 crore to reach its goal by the end of March 2019. To reach that feat, the state-run energy service company will soon sign Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with governments of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh to supply 1,000 and 8,000 EVs, respectively.

Saurabh Kumar, who is the managing director at EESL, reportedly 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.” He further added that the firm has signed an MoU with the Andhra Pradesh government to procure 10,000 cars last month and has already floated another tender of an equal number of units. In his own words, “The tender process is progressing well and we would be soon entering into agreements with Maharashtra and Gujarat governments.”

With such a vast number of pure electric cars on the road, EESL estimates a fuel saving of over 5 crore litres per annum, which in turn will lead to a sizeable reduction of over 5.6 lakh tonnes of annual carbon dioxide emissions. The thing is, those figures seem a bit too optimistic. Whether or not the company has taken into account the amount of CO2 that is produced from coal-powered electricity plants, which by the way produce over 80 per cent of electricity used in our country, is unclear.

Apart from this, EESL also has plans to set 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.

The company’s first tender for EVs was floated last year and Tata Motors bagged the winning bid to provide electric versions of the Tigor sedan. 500 units of the said vehicle have already been delivered. With Mahindra coming out as a runner-up during the bidding process, it too will be providing a sizeable amount of EVs to EESL.