ESSL puts bidding for 10k e-ears on hold; waiting for new norms

State-owned Energy Efficiency Services (EESL) has put on hold its second round of bidding for procuring another 10,000 electric car for which it had floated tender in March this year.

"We have put on hold the tender for another 10,000 electric cars for which bids were invited in March this year because Heavy Industries Ministry is in the process of firming up specification for charging infrastructure," EESL Managing Director Saurabh Kumar told PTI.

He further said as soon as the ministry comes out with the new specification, we would go for the bidding to procure another 10,000 e-cars.

Denying certain media reports that the auction is pushed forward by almost a year till March 2019, he said that the successful bidders will start delivery of cars within six weeks after the auction is concluded and thus the procurement of another 10000 e-cars would not be delayed by a year.

He further told that the process to procure 10,000 electric cars under first tender is going on, under which Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will roll out the e-vehicle programme tomorrow in the state to procure 1,000 units.

He also said there is no delay from state's side to take deliveries of cars as purported in certain media reports and there is good response to this demand aggregation initiative of the company from states.

The EESL had inked pact with Andhra Pradesh to supply 10,000 electric cars from May, 2018 onwards. Besides, Indian Railways has requisitioned for 1,000 e-cars.

Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra had emerged as successful bidders in the first tender of the EESL for 10,000 car finalised in October last year.

The objective of the National E-Mobility Programme is to provide an impetus to the entire e-mobility ecosystem, including vehicle manufacturers, charging infrastructure companies, fleet operators, service providers, etc. The EESL will aggregate demand by procuring electric vehicles in bulk to get economies of scale. These electric vehicles will replace the existing fleet of petrol and diesel vehicles.