Coca-Cola’s bottling companions in India are going electrical, three wheels at a time. The corporate simply introduced a serious growth of its electrical supply fleet, including hundreds of electrical three-wheeled automobiles (typically referred to as e-rickshaws or electrical tuk-tuks) to its logistics operations throughout the nation.
These compact electrical automobiles are already a typical sight on India’s roads, used for the whole lot from passenger transport to last-mile cargo deliveries. Now Coca-Cola’s bottlers are ramping up their use of those environment friendly EVs as a part of a broader sustainability and welfare initiative dubbed “Vividhta ka Uphaar,” which interprets to “a present of variety.”
In keeping with the corporate, the rollout is already underway, with greater than 5,000 electrical three-wheelers built-in into supply routes in cities resembling Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Bhopal, and extra. The automobiles not solely scale back tailpipe emissions but in addition decrease noise air pollution and working prices, making them a win for each the corporate and the communities they serve.
Coca-Cola joins a rising record of multinational firms turning to electrical tuk-tuks to scrub up their supply fleets in Asia. IKEA has deployed comparable electrical three-wheelers in India and different Southeast Asian international locations as a part of its push to realize zero-emissions deliveries. Amazon and Flipkart have additionally experimented with three-wheeled EVs to achieve city prospects on tight, traffic-clogged streets.
Whereas North America typically focuses on four-wheeled electrical vehicles and vans for industrial usea lot of the growing world depends on these nimble three-wheeled workhorses. Inexpensive, maneuverable, and straightforward to cost, electrical rickshaws are a pure match for dense cities with sizzling climates – particularly the place small companies and huge firms alike want environment friendly last-mile options.
Electrek’s Take
All these EVs can’t come quickly sufficient. They use electrical drivetrains which might be nearer in dimension to an electrical bicycle than an electrical supply truck or van (normally 2-4kW motors and 3-5 kWh batteries), but can carry hundreds nearer in dimension to those self same vehicles and vans.
Certain, they’ll’t carry fairly the identical tonnage, however they’re typically extra appropriately sized for the sort of last-mile supply that so many corporations require.
I truly purchased an electrical tuk-tuk again in 2023 and located it to be the right ‘metropolis truck’ for my way of life, the place I stay car-free in a metropolis and my spouse and I journey by e-bike and e-motorcycle. For the few instances we have to truly haul stuff, an electrical tuk-tuk or rickshaw offers truck-like capability in a smaller and extra environment friendly automobile. What’s to not like?!
Photographs by way of: Coca-cola
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