Govt officials turn down e-cars by Mahindra and Tata Motors

Electric cars built by Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) and Tata Motors have come under heavy criticism for their low performance and mileage from government officials.

The officials who have used the electric variant of the cars are now refusing to use the vehicles.

The models including E-Verito have failed to run even 80-82 km on a single charge and its battery capacity is also not up to the world standard, Mint quoted. Their battery packs are of 17 kilowatts (kW), which are way below the global standard of 27-35kW.

Currently, Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL), a public sector unit under the Ministry of Power, procures and deploys the vehicles. EESL is a joint-venture comprising four government-owned entities — NTPC, Power Grid, Power Finance Corp and Rural Electrification Corporation.

Earlier, EESL had floated two global tenders to procure 20,000 e-vehicles as part of a plan to replace the five-lakh petrol and diesel cars used by the government and its agencies over a 3-4 year period.

In the first phase, automakers were to supply 10,000 units of electric vehicles to EESL.

At present, around more than 150 electric vehicles are on the roads of Delhi and Andhra Pradesh. Tata Motors and Mahindra were expected to supply 350 units and 150 units respectively to the government in the first phase. The reasons for the delay in procuring vehicles are not specified by the companies.

Mahindra has electric variants eVerito and e2o. It is planning to make electric variants of almost all of its passenger vehicles such as Scorpio, Bolero, XUV and TUV models, among others.

The present government had set an ambitious goal to shift towards electric ecosystem after 2030.

However, the lack of charging infrastructure has proved to be a major concern for automobile players looking to enter the EV space.  In India, electric vehicle sales are low because of few available models and a lack of infrastructure.

The second tender of 10,000 units had been reportedly postponed to 2019 due to lack of charging infrastructure.