India is a growing market for the online retailer Amazon. To accommodate the growth sustainably, the company has started using an electric three-wheeler called Treo Zor for deliveries. Indian electric car manufacturer Mahindra Electric locally manufactures the eco-friendly rickshaw. The partnership strengthens Amazon’s commitment to electric mobility in the country.
Amazon intends to have a fleet of 10,000 Treo Zors by 2025. It has deployed one hundred of them already, servicing seven cities: Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Indore, Lucknow, and New Delhi.
Akhil Saxena, Amazon’s VP of Customer Fulfilment Operations, said:
We are committed to building a supply chain that will minimize the environmental impact of our operations. The expansion of our Electric Vehicle fleet to 10,000 vehicles by 2025 is an integral milestone in our journey to become a sustainability leader in the industry. We continue to work with several OEMs to build a fleet of ‘Made in India’ electric vehicles that ensure sustainable and safe deliveries of customer orders, and this partnership with Mahindra Electric is a testament of our commitment.
Rickshaws are very popular in India. They are mainly used as taxis. But Treo Zor is built to carry cargo. It’s well-equipped to make deliveries on the country’s busy roads. So, while Amazon has invested more in other companies – like ordering 100,000 Rivian electric vans in the US – it’s likely to increase investment in Mahindra Electric in the future.
Treo Zor’s have a range of 125 km (77.7 miles) and can charge from zero to full in under four hours. It can bear a 500kg load on the back and reach a top speed of 50 km/h (31 mph).
Amazon was the Climate Pledge’s first signatory in September 2019. Any company that signs are vowing to be net-zero carbon by 2040 across its business. That’s ten years ahead of the Paris Agreement’s goal. As part of this ambition, Amazon made a global commitment to have 100,000 electric vehicles in its worldwide delivery fleet by 2030 (and 10,000 by 2022). These 10,000 rickshaws are not a part of that – they are over and above the pledge.
Nitin Gadkari, India’s Minister of Road Transport & Highways, said:
Clean mobility powered by clean energy is an important element in the action to prevent climate change. The partnership between Amazon India and Mahindra Electric is a welcome step that reaffirms India’s significant progress in the e-mobility industry and highlights automakers and e-commerce companies’ roles to achieve our environmental sustainability goals. We are confident that the government’s efforts to encourage the adoption of electric vehicles in the country and steps taken towards setting up infrastructure backed by policy measures will help more companies adopt e-mobility.
Mahesh Babu, Mahindra Electric’s MD & CEO, said:
We believe this will redefine India’s logistics and last-mile delivery needs and at the same time help Mahindra and Amazon to achieve our sustainability goals. We are happy that this made-in-India electric cargo will contribute towards Amazon’s delivery partner fleet transformation towards EVs in the country. The success of our Treo range of three-wheelers has proved that electric vehicles in the last mile segment are a win-win solution for our customers as well as the larger society.
The Treo Zor is quite new, having just launched in October 2020. It’s equipped with safety and stability features to supply the driver with the best experience possible.
