Tata Motors bags contract to provide 10,000 electric cars to EESL

Moneycontrol News

Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) on Friday said that it will procure 10,000 electric vehicles from  Tata Motors after the latter emerged as the lowest bidder in a competitive bidding process.

Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) and Japanese carmaker Nissan had all bid for the EESL contract to provide 10,000 electric vehicles over the next 12 months.

Tata Motors quoted the lowest price of Rs 10.16 lakh, exclusive of GST, in the bidding process. The vehicle will be provided to EESL for Rs 11.2 lakh, which will be inclusive of GST and a comprehensive 5-year warranty. At this price, the car will cost 25% less than the current retail price of a similar e-car with a 3-year warranty.

Welcoming the EESL initiative, Guenter Butschek, CEO & MD, Tata Motors said: “Tata Motors is extremely proud to partner with the Government of India in its journey to facilitate faster adoption of electric vehicles and to build a sustainable India. Tata Motors has been collaboratively working to develop electric powertrain technology for its selected products. EESL tender provided us the opportunity to participate in boosting e-mobility in the country, at the same time accelerate our efforts to offer full range of electric vehicles to the Indian consumers.”

According to a Business Standard report, the first phase will see the delivery of 500 electric cars over a three-month period. The second phase will see 9,500 electric cars delivered in nine months.

The report said that the company selected to provide the cars to EESL will not have to spend on launches, advertisements or other promotional activities, thereby enabling bidders to bid lower than they would have done otherwise.

EESL is a joint venture between government entities National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Power Grid, Power Finance Corporation, and Rural Electrification Corporation. It had floated the tender on August 15.

EESL aims to lease these electric cars to the various government departments. The first of the departments to get these cars would be the power ministry and the power public sector units in the National Capital Region (NCR).

The company, which comes under the Ministry of Power, further said along with procurement of 10,000 EVs through bidding, it would also identify a service provider agency.

"This agency, also appointed through competitive bidding, will carry out end-to-end fleet management of the procured vehicles for the concerned government customer," the statement added.

Apart from continuing to aggregate demand, EESL will also be responsible such as coordination between appointed agencies, monitoring and supervision, reporting, complaint redressal and payments, it said.

Citing a Niti Aayog report, EESL said making India's passenger mobility shared, electric, and connected can cut the country's energy demand by 64 per cent and carbon emissions by 37 per cent in 2030.

"This would result in a reduction of 156 Mtoe (million tonne oil equivalent) in diesel and petrol consumption for that year & at USD 52/bbl of crude, this would imply a net savings of roughly Rs 3.9 lakh crore in 2030," the company said.

The government is pushing for manufacturing of electric vehicles to reduce dependence on oil imports and control vehicular pollution. Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said early this month the government will ‘bulldoze’ the auto industry if it did not switch to cleaner vehicles.