Government To Float Another Tender For 10,000 Electric Cars

State-owned Energy Efficiency Services Ltd. will float another tender for 10,000 electric cars in March-April next year, in line with the government's vision of completely moving away from fossil fuel-powered vehicles by 2030.

"There will be another tender for 10,000 electric cars in March or April next year," EESL Managing Director Saurabh Kumar told reporters in a media interaction. The company is expecting a turnover of Rs 3,500 crore during the current fiscal with a profit of Rs 250 crore, Kumar said.

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Another senior official of the company said that EESL would also have plans for procuring electric buses in the country but the scale of business would depend on the demand. In view of rising pollution in the national capital region, the Delhi government was planning to procure electric buses to provide clean mode of public transport.

Kumar added that EESL wants a piece of the pie in the big electric vehicle charging infrastructure market, following the government's push. The senior official said there is a huge potential in electric charging infrastructure as there are available technologies which can charge a vehicle in 5 to 10 minutes, but those are expensive.

However, EESL has already floated tender for AC (alternate current) and DC (direct current) electric vehicle chargers. These DC chargers can fully charge a vehicle in 45 to 60 minutes, while the AC charger would take 6 to 7 hours.

Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra had emerged as successful bidders in the first of tender of the EESL for 10,000 cars finalised last month.