Taking environment friendly method in mind, BigBasket, a Bengaluru-based online grocery market, has planned to run its last-mile delivery operations across metros in e-mobility.
The unicorn startup said that it currently has 150 e-vans and 50 e-bikes. It aims to increase this to 1000 vans and 2000 bikes within the next one year.
The switch to e-mobility has come at a time when the use of electric vehicles is seen as a necessity in helping reduce vehicular emission.
The company further said that it has worked with multiple e-vans like Gayam Motors and Euler Motors and certified them for their operations.
K B Nagaraju, chief customer experience officer, BigBasket, said, “Our scale and push for sustainable and renewable energy have resulted in tangible savings and a positive contribution towards the environment. Though there has been a significant push for EVs in the recent budget, there is a need to address the issue of bank finance to OEMs and small transporters and individual buyers as long as the vehicles are used for commercial transportation.”
Bigbasket was started by Abhinay Choudhari, Hari Menon, Vipul Parekh, VS Ramesh, and VS Sudhakar in 2011. The company claims to be one of the largest online food and grocery players in India with operations spread across 26 cities. It offers an online assortment with 19,000 plus products and 3,000+ brands across fruits, vegetables, staples, meat, beverages, and personal care categories.
The company is backed by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and it is operated by SuperMarket Grocery Supplies Pvt. Ltd. It sources fresh fruits and vegetables directly from farmers.
The company said it is also looking to challenge the issues related to the deployment of EVs.
The company has made efforts to resolve some of these challenges by providing charging infrastructure, at times even free of cost, to EV transporters.
BigBasket said its operations have expanded to 26 cities in India recording about 2.5 lakh customer orders per day. It claims to have 15 Mn registered customers. The company aims to double its revenue to $1 Bn by March 2020.
Some of the platforms in the similar space includes Grofers, Nature’s Basket, jiffstore, OrderRabbit, Grocerkey, tokri, etc.