Amazon orders 100,000 electric delivery vans

Amazon has ordered 100,000 of Rivian’s electric delivery vans — which when delivered will make its fleet the world’s largest electrically-powered suite of vehicles. 10,000 of the vans will enter service by 2021 and the full figure is expected to come online by 2030. Amazon has reportedly invested $440 million into the overhaul and claims it will prevent 4 million tonnes of annual CO2 emissions.

EV tax cuts take effect, country waits for investments to follow

India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s biggest step so far in addressing the intensifying economic slowdown in the country has been the ₹ 1.45 lakh crore tax cuts for corporates. Among the beneficiaries would be new EV manufacturing companies. Companies set up on or after October 1 will have to pay an effective tax of 17.01% and would be exempt from minimum alternate taxes.

India’s auto sector and its value chain accounts for nearly half of India’s manufacturing GDP. While EVs account for less than 1% of the sales though and most of the components are imported. The new tax incentives complement earlier tax incentives and GST rate cuts that encourage EV purchases. Still, while corporations stand to earn 3-8% more with new tax breaks, it remains to be seen if this translates to increased investments.

EESL to cut EV procurement to less than a third of original plan

The economic slowdown is having a major impact on India’s EV procurement drive. State-run Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) is seriously considering cutting its sourcing requirements to just 3,000 sedans from the 10,000 that was originally planned until March 2020. With just 1,500 sedans sourced so far, EESL has reportedly decided to limit procurement owing to a lack of demand. EESL’s purported change in plans is another sign of the deepening slowdown in the auto sector, which is already witnessing the worst slump in passenger vehicle sales in almost 20 years.

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