Cabinet finally passes Goyal’s 100% railway electrification plan

The Indian government has finally approved the plan to completely electrify the Railways by 2022. The plan, which had been proposed by the minister of railways and coal, Piyush Goyal, last year, was not officially approved by the PM until now due to expenditures already made for diesel-powered locomotives. The expected rise in electricity demand would be 3,800MW.

At present, Indian Railways uses energy from a mix of sources and has been setting up renewable energy power plants through its subsidiary, Railway Energy Management Company Limited (REMCL). REMCL has already announced plans for 1,000MW of solar power and 200MW of wind power capacity addition.

NITI’s MOVE Summit ends without EV Policy, survey suggests strong public demand for EVs

The NITI Aayog’s MOVE Summit ended without the Centre announcing an EV policy – which has been much-anticipated by automakers following India’s electric mobility transition. Meanwhile a recent pan-India survey suggests that 87% of the urban respondents are willing to purchase EVs – especially because it would help reduce India’s toxic urban air pollution.

EESL: Second tender for 10,000 electric cars in India to come soon

India’s Energy Efficiency Services Ltd. (EESL) is likely to notify its second tender for 10,000 electric cars soon after new charging standards are finalised. Last year’s Bharat DC 001 standards were reportedly deemed to be insufficient in meeting the charging demands of higher end EVs.

Interestingly, there were allegations that the previous batch of EVs by Tata and Mahindra barely managed to drive 80km on a single charge – as opposed to the design requirement of 130km.

Goa seeks Centre’s help to buy electric buses

Goa has sought funds from the Centre to run electric buses priced at Rs2.6 crore each. The state zeroed in on electric buses after conducting trials earlier this year. It previously conducted trials on biogas and ethanol buses, but dropped the idea as it didn’t have enough bio fuel.

IKEA to switch to zero-emissions delivery fleet across 5 major cities

Furniture giant IKEA is targeting 25% of its global delivery fleet to be emissions-free by 2020 by using EVs or other zero-emission vehicles for home deliveries in Amsterdam, Los Angeles, New York, Paris and Shanghai. Its flagship store in Hyderabad (India) already uses electric autorickshaws to deliver orders.

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