Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture of the public-sector units of the Ministry of Power and the Government of India, has scrapped the second tender to procure 10,000 electric vehicles (EVs) to be used by government departments and agencies.

EESL had issued the tender for procurement in March 2018.

The reason this tender had to be scrapped was because it had specifications for EVs in luxury bracket and the Bharat EV Charger is not compatible with high-end vehicle specifications. The government is still working on the specifications for EV chargers in India, resulting in the scrapping of the tender.

When contacted, an official in EESL’s e-mobility wing said, “Yes, the tender has been scrapped, but we will reissue it within a month or so.” For the first tender, there were only two manufacturers that participated, and EESL awarded the contracts to create demand and an initial market”.

“For this tender, there were specifications for high-end cars too that would run than 140 km with a single charge. Such cars require different sort of chargers. In India, we have Bharat EV Chargers, and that will not be compatible with all cars. Government is still working on setting standards for EV charging. Once the new set of standards for EV charging is issued, we (EESL) will revise the request for selection (RfS) accordingly and issue a new tender for 10,000 EVs,” added the EESL official.

The EESL official also said, “In the initial tender, there was space for only three winners, L1, L2, L3. In that scenario, L2 and L3 were supposed to match the L1 price and the contracts would be awarded amongst three firms. Now, the tender will have two specifications, one for EVs up to 140 km range and the second for EVs of range above 140 km (luxury EVs), three winners for each specification. In all there will be six participants, more competition and better technologies.”

Manufacturers have become familiar with the Indian EV sector for a year now and are aware of the requirements of the market. Soon, we expect to have competent original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) participating in the tender that is likely to be announced in a month or two.