Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, recently uploaded a video on Twitter and Instagram that left a lot of people bamboozled. The video displayed the Amazon CEO having fun driving an electric rikshaw in India as a part of a video campaign that announced that Amazon themselves, will be deploying their own fleet of e-rikshaws for deliveries.
Soon after the announcement, CEAT followed up by revealing that it will their tyres that will power the amazon e-rikshaw fleet. The CEAT Milaze E-rikshaw has been selected as the official tyre partner for the electric delivery fleet of Amazon.
CEAT's involvement in the deal comes at a time when many tyre companies are increasingly trying to contribute towards a cleaner future of zero carbon emissions. Making airless tyres, recyclable tyres and contributing towards powering electric vehicles are just a few ways that tyre companies are trying to lend a hand in the global quest for a greener future.
Infact, French tyre giants Michelin have already pledged to become carbon neutral by 2050 in all its plants across the globe. Not to forget that the automobile industry too has picked up the pace in taking up initiatives to work towards an electric and a greener future. The move comes as a much needed step at a time when people across the globe continue to be plagued by issues due to global climate change.
Also See: CEAT Shoppes: Redefining Your Tyre Buying Experience
The e-rikshaws will be provided by Hyderabad-based Gayam Motor Works, an e-mobility start-up that was founded in 2011 by brothers Raja and Rahul along with Sri Harsha Bavirsetty.
The start-up is also working with several other big-shots like BigBasket, Flipkart and Grofers to name a few.
There has been no mention of how many rikshaws will be deployed but business insider quoted an amazon spokesperson saying that approximately 10,000 such rikshaws will be deployed by 2025 in India. There is no information however about how many of these are already in service.
The spokesperson had further added:
" We piloted these Evs in 2019 and are now scaling up rapidly. This number is dynamic and fast-changing because of the scale up."
via business insider
The announcement comes at the backdrop of amazon's declaration that they will invest a billion dollars towards "digitizing small and medium businesses" in India, and predicting that the India-US alliance will be "the most important alliance " of this century.
The site continues to face stiff competition in the country from its rival firm Flipkart (owned by Walmart) and has been facing increased scrutiny in India from local traders and kirana store owners who continue to accuse the company of using predatory pricing and effecting their local businesses.
