Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), has issued an expression of interest (EoI) to empanel financial institutions to finance electric vehicles (EV) in partnership with state governments.

The financial institutions will be contracted upon empanelment until March 31, 2024.

The last date to submit the bids is October 19, 2022. Bids will be opened on the same day.

The empanelled financial institution must furnish a performance bank guarantee of ₹50,000 (~$611.33) within 28 days of receiving the empanelment letter.

Micro and small enterprises (MSE) and startups will get a purchase preference with 25% of the total quantity of the tender earmarked for MSEs.

Of the 25% target of annual procurement from MSEs, 4% and 3% will be earmarked for procurement from MSEs owned by Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes and women entrepreneurs.

The empanelled institutions must furnish a participation fee equal to 1% (exclusive of GST) of the disbursed loan to CESL within 15 days of loan disbursement.

The scope of work includes accepting and evaluating applications from borrowers while finalizing evaluation criteria per policies for financing EVs.

The financing tenor will be a minimum of 24 months and a maximum of 60 months. The institution must disburse or sanction a minimum of 80% (loan to value ratio of 80%) of the invoiced vehicle value equal to the net of FAME-II (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles) subsidy as the loan amount.

The EV to be financed will be insured for the duration of the financing period. All vehicles to be financed must be lithium-ion battery operated and with standard product warranties.

The financial institutions participating in the tender must be scheduled commercial banks or public financial institutions registered under section 4A of the Companies Act 1956 or non-banking financial companies registered with the Reserve Bank of India.

The financial institutions must be experienced in financing vehicles in the transport or auto sector or EVs for a minimum of one year.

The average annual turnover of the participating financial institutions must be more than ₹6 million (~$73,360) in the last three financial years. The company’s average assets under management for the last three years must be greater than ₹30 million (~$366,800).

The net worth of the financial institutions should not be negative and should not have eroded by more than 30% in the last three years.

In August this year, as part of CESL’s Grand Challenge initiative, the West Bengal Transport Corporation granted a letter of award to Tata Motors to deploy 1,180 electric buses in Kolkata.

Earlier this year, CESL invited bids to select vendors for location survey, planning, design, engineering, supply, installation, testing, and commissioning 80 units of CCS2 50/ 60 kW EV chargers across multiple locations in the country.