Indian food delivery major Swiggy bets big on electric vehicles

Swiggy, an India-based food delivery company, has committed to cover 800,000 kilometers via electric vehicles (EV) by 2025.

The company has also entered into an agreement with Reliance BP Mobility Limited (RBML) to build an EV ecosystem and battery-swapping stations for its delivery partners across the country.

The company said that a single pre-charged battery allows EVs to travel up to 80 kilometers. With battery swapping taking less than five minutes, delivery partners are likely to have shorter wait times and make more deliveries as a result. Swiggy will also train its partners on how to use EVs, swapping stations, and mobile apps to monitor battery performance.

Photo credit: Swiggy

According to the food delivery firm, it has teamed up with e-bike manufacturer Hero Lectro to carry out end-to-end delivery. Trials of the company’s Lectro Cargo e-bikes are already underway in the Indian cities of Bengaluru, New Delhi, and Hyderabad.

Swiggy said that the Lectro Cargo e-bikes are specifically designed for last-mile deliveries and can run at a maximum speed of 25 kilometers per hour with a range of up to 75 kilometers per charge.

“Making deliveries through EVs is expected to lower the running cost of vehicles by up to 40%, leading to higher earnings for Swiggy’s delivery partners,” the company said in a statement.

Hero Electra EV cycle being used for Swiggy deliveries / Photo credit: Swiggy

The use of electric vehicles is gradually picking up pace in India. For instance, Ola Electric, the EV arm of Indian ride-hailing firm Ola, will soon launch an electric scooter in the country. According to the official website, it has already received more than 100,000 reservations for the e-scooter.

The likes of Flipkart are also making efforts to embrace and deploy EVs. In February this year, the Walmart-owned ecommerce firm announced it would deploy more than 25,000 EVs by 2030.

India’s electric vehicle market, valued at US$5 billion in 2020, is expected to hit US$47 billion by 2026, according to an industry report.