Government plans to purchase 10,000 electric cars for NCR

Energy Efficiency Service Ltd. (EESL), a joint venture of firms under the Ministry of Power, is inviting bids for the purchase of 10,000 electric sedans for the power, new and renewable energy, coal and mining ministries as well as provide them on rent to other government departments in the NCR region.

In an official tender, it has mandated that the electric sedan should measure over four meters in length and come with a wheelbase greater than 2,500mm. These e-sedans have to be powered by an electric motor of 30kW or more, have a driving range that exceeds 130km (without AC) with a top speed of 80kph. A driving range of 100km needs to be attainable within six hours of normal charging or 90 minutes of fast charging. Battery life, meanwhile, is stipulated at 3,000 cycles and will have to be provisioned with both AC and DC charging points that are compliant with Bharat EV charger specifications (BEVC- AC001 and BEVC-DC001).

Each vehicle will also be required to be fitted with a telematics device in order to monitor, collect, and report information related to each vehicles usage and performance including vehicle identification, daily distance run, routes, charging event information, energy consumption and operator ID.

Crucially, EESL will also increase the charging infrastructure for these electric vehicles by adding up to 3,000 AC and 1,000 DC charging points in the NCR region. The charging will be metered and payments can be made via mobile payment gateways.

Mahindra, currently, is the only mainstream electric car manufacturer in India and is poised to gain out of this. Though, for the moment, none of its electric cars meet the exact criteria. Its eVerito sedan has a range of 110km only and also takes a longer time to charge as well. Nonetheless, Mahindra will still be very interested to cash-in on this opportunity.