In Delhi too: Delhi has seen the merit in using EVs for deliveries, such as this electric van being trialled in the UK | Image credit: London.gov.uk

Delhi to support EVs for delivery services, DHI calls for 5,000 e-buses

The Delhi government is reportedly mulling incentives for all app-based delivery services to only use electric vehicles – with the larger goal of lowering the city’s air pollution. The incentives may be formalized in the upcoming Delhi EV Policy and will affect services such as Zomato, Swiggy, Amazon and Flipkart.

The Dept. of Heavy Industry (DHI), on the other hand, has asked state governments to submit EoIs for 5,000 electric buses, and will support their induction with a corpus of $5million.

China removes license plate quotas for EVs

China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has removed license plate quotas for EVs to further boost their staggering sales figures. The quota will still apply to traditional cars – which limits how many of them can be registered. China did slash EV subsidies by up to 60% last month as the industry goes mainstream, but removing the quota could help register several more EVs than the 60,000 units in 2018. India, in comparison, sold 3,600 EVs last year.

India: Uber and Ola to go 40% electric by 2026, govt to secure raw material supplies

The Indian government plans to ask cab aggregators Uber and Ola to ‘electrify’ 40% of their fleets by 2026 to push EVs for public transport. The aggregators may have to start with a target of 2.5% by 2021 and scale up rapidly every year thereafter. The country has so far achieved less than 2% (0.28 million) of its target of 15-16 million EVs by 2020.

India will also forge ties with Latin American countries — including Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Peru – to secure steady supplies of lithium and cobalt, which are key raw materials used in EV batteries.

Toyota signs deal with CATL for EV batteries, BMW-JLR to jointly develop future EVs

After repeatedly pushing for hybrids, Toyota will sign up with CATL (China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.) – the world’s largest maker of automotive batteries – to procure batteries for its future, fully-electric cars. Toyota is targeting 50% EV sales by 2030 and is even launching a 100% electric SUV in the US with Subaru.

Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover, and Germany’s automotive powerhouse BMW are also joining hands to jointly manufacture future electric vehicles, the motors for which will not need rare earth metals. BMW expects to unveil the Gen5 e-Drive technology in its products by 2020, and the manufacturers hope to make it more affordable by sharing product development and production costs.

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