NITI Aayog, with Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and RMI India’s support had launched Shoonya—an initiative to promote zero-pollution delivery vehicles by working with consumers and industry in 2021. This year marks the first anniversary of the campaign.
Objective –
The campaign aims to accelerate adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in the urban deliveries segment and create consumer awareness about the benefits of zero-pollution delivery.
Details –
- Industry stakeholders such as e-commerce companies, fleet aggregators, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and logistics companies have been scaling up their efforts towards final-mile delivery electrification.
- Initially, close to 30 companies have shown their support for the campaign. Subsequently, additional industry players will be invited to join the initiative. Now, after one year, the campaign has 130 industry partners, including ride-hailing, delivery and EV companies.
- As part of the campaign, a corporate branding and certification programme is being launched to recognise and promote industry’s efforts towards transitioning to EVs for final-mile deliveries.
- An online tracking platform will share the campaign’s impact through data such as vehicle kilometers electrified, carbon savings, criteria pollutant savings and other benefits from clean delivery vehicles.
Need –
- Urban freight vehicles account for 10 percent of freight transportation-related CO2 emissions in India, and these emissions are expected to grow by 114 percent by 2030.
- EVs emit no tailpipe emissions, which can contribute immensely to an improved air quality. Even when accounting for their manufacture, they emit 15-40 percent less CO2 compared to their internal combustion engine counterparts and have lower operational cost.
.png)