Citing poor performance and mileage, govt officials refuse to use e-vehicles

Mumbai: Senior government officials have denied using Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd and Tata Motors manufactured electric cars on the basis of poor performance and low mileage, says report.

Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) which is a public sector unit under the Power ministry was to obtain the vehicles from Mahindra and Tata Motors and deliver it to the minsters. The main reason behind the refusal of using electric cars is the lack of infrastructure of charging the vehicles, Indian infrastructure is not electric ready currently.

Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd and Tata Motors were to deliver its Verito and Tigor models to the ministry which was delayed considering the lack of charging infrastructure. In the first phase, they were ordered to supply 350 units and 150 units of their models to the Union government. Both models were not capable of providing an average of more than 80-82 km on single charge in cities.

Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd and Tata Motors were to supply another 9,500 electric vehicles to EESL out of which 40 per cent was to be supplied by Mahindra. Mahindra E Verito is based on its slow-selling Verito sedan model. Tata has plans to launch its Tigor electric in the market by 2019.

On account of failure in matching the international standards of performance and mileage, Mahindra has said that it is developing a new electric vehicle which will provide a better mileage than the previous model.