Power Finance Corporation Ltd (PFC), one of India’s leading non-banking financial corporations, recently approved a loan of INR 633 crores to Gensol Engineering Ltd (GEL). The loan will be used to purchase 5000 passenger electric vehicles (EVs) and 1000 cargo EVs for use in Delhi. Blusmart Mobility Private Ltd (BMPL), a ride-hailing cab provider, will lease the passenger EVs to expand its fleet of electric ride-hailing cabs.
The first tranche of the loan has already been disbursed, and the first batch of EV taxis has begun operating on Delhi’s roads. At a function, Shri Ajay Tewari, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Power, and Shri Ravinder Singh Dhillon, CMD, PFC, flagged off the cabs. Other senior executives from PFC, GEL, and Blusmart Mobility were also in attendance.
Emission Savings of over 1 Lakh Tonnes of CO2 Equivalent
The deployment of 5000 passenger electric four-wheelers (e4Ws) in Delhi is expected to save over 100,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. This is the amount of CO2 absorbed in a year by over 5 million fully grown trees. Electric vehicle deployment is a significant step towards India’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and meeting Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) goals.
“E-mobility adoption is happening at a rapid pace in the country, and we believe there is a huge potential in this field,” said Shri Ravinder Singh Dhillon, CMD, PFC. PFC has attempted to contribute to India’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) goals through this funding, and this will go a long way towards moving towards a healthy and sustainable mode of transportation.”
Accelerating India’s Net-zero Goal
PFC has been looking into ways to accelerate India’s net-zero goal and has been heavily investing in renewables, in addition to EVs (OEMs and fleet acquisition), battery OEMs, and EV charging infrastructure. The loan for the deployment of electric vehicles in Delhi is another step in this direction.
Conclusion
The introduction of electric vehicles in Delhi is an important step towards lowering greenhouse gas emissions and meeting India’s NDC targets. The PFC loan of INR 633 crores for the purchase of electric vehicles is expected to save more than 1 lakh tonnes of CO2 equivalent. PFC has been exploring opportunities to fund renewable energy projects, electric vehicles, and EV charging infrastructure in order to accelerate India’s net-zero goal.