Hyundai, Tata Motors in EV order win, EESL keeps e-taxi tender on hold
<p style="text-align: center;"><img title="1598859730138097.png" alt="8.png" src="/ueditor/php/upload/image/20200831/1598859730138097.png"/></p><p> Tata Motors and Hyundai Motor have emerged winners in a tender to supply 250 electric passenger vehicles to the government floated by Energy Efficiency Services Ltd, people familiar with the development said.<br/><br/>Out of the total procurement, Tata Motors will supply 150 Nexon electric compact SUVs while Hyundai will supply 100 units of its Kona electric SUVs, they said.<br/><br/>This is part of a tender floated by the state-owned government transport provider to acquire 1,000 electric vehicles from automobile manufacturers.<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>However, 750 vehicles of the tender, which were meant for e-taxis, has been put on hold, said Saurabh Kumar, managing director of EESL. ¡°The e-taxi operators were wary of any fresh investments at this time, so we will let the tender lapse and wait till demand revives for e-taxis,¡± he said.<br/><br/>The tender came three years after EESL had floated a 10,000 vehicle EV tender in 2017. That tender ¨C won by Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra ¨C was eventually scrapped.<br/><br/>Under the new contract, EESL was calling for quotes for two different categories of EVs ¨C 750 electric cars with a standard three-year warranty and comprehensive annual maintenance costs (AMC) for three years and 250 cars with a standard six-year warranty and comprehensive AMC for six years.<br/><br/>¡°Currently EESL has 100 charging stations,¡± Kumar said. He said usage of charging stations is increasing steadily and grew 20% in July. ¡°Going forward, this will definitely give a fillip to the electric vehicle sales,¡± he said.<br/><br/>As per the latest deal, EESL will procure Tata Nexon at Rs 14.85 lakh each, just Rs 14,000 cheaper than its ex-showroom price of Rs 14.99 lakh. Kona, which offers a higher range, will be procured at an 11% lower price band of Rs 21.1 lakh.<br/><br/>While confirming its participation in the tender, a Tata Motors spokesperson said Nexon EV has helped the company post a market share of 62% in EVs in the first quarter of this fiscal. The company recently rolled out the 1000th Nexon EV in just over six months.<br/><br/>An order from EESL is not a volume game, but it helps in terms of branding s the order from a government agency gets consumer confidence in such products, said Kaushik Madhavan, vice president, mobility practice, at research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.</p><p><br/></p><p>For Hyundai, such orders are an entry point with government agencies while Tata Motors gets better prepared to handle quality and other operational issues.<br/><br/>Mahindra, the country¡¯s pioneer in EVs, did not participate in this tender. Experts said their limited EV product profile as well as e-Verito not doing too well could be the reason for non-participation.<br/><br/>According to some industry insiders, many government agencies had refused Tata Tigor and Mahindra e-Verito earlier procured by EESL, blaming poor performance and range.<br/><br/>The newer set of EVs have a higher range and perform better opening the doors for EESL to consider fresh tenders, experts said.<br/><br/>This is the right time for EESL to take the plunge and open more tenders for EVs, Madhavan of Frost & Sullivan said.<br/><br/>He said the current crop of EVs are better designed and developed and leagues ahead in performance compared to previous ones.<br/><br/>EESL is a joint venture of four public-sector undertakings under the power ministry promoting the adoption of EVs. It purchases electric cars from manufacturers and leases them to government departments and cab aggregators.</p>
31 Aug,2020
