Amazon pledges 10,000 electric delivery rickshaws starting this year
Amazon CEO and mega-billionaire Jeff Bezos took a trip to India this past week in order to attend a small-business conference and meet with several small-business owners, among other corporate errands. During his time, Bezos announced that Amazon plans to create 1 million new jobs in India over the next five years. Many of these jobs will come in the form of logistics, distribution and delivery, all of which have increasingly become the core of the company's operation. As Amazon continues to skyrocket the normalcy and speed of rapid delivery, it also pledged to bring 10,000 electric rickshaws to India by 2025.
In 2019, Amazon signed a Climate Pledge, saying it planned to run its operations on 100% renewable energy by 2030 and go net carbon zero by 2040. As part of these efforts, Amazon said it would invest $100 million to reforestation efforts and add 100,000 fully electric vehicles to its delivery fleet. The 10,000 electric rickshaws in India are in addition to the pledge.
Amazon started testing electric rickshaws in India in 2019 through pilot programs. From the learnings and experience of those pilots, Amazon worked with OEMs in India to design and build the battery-powered rickshaws seen in the video above. The rickshaws, which come in three- or four-wheel configurations, will launch in 20 cities in 2020, including Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Nagpur, and Coimbatore. Beyond the manufacturing intentions, there are zero details about the specs and inner workings of the rickshaws.
Although these machines were designed and built specifically for India, Amazon should consider similar solutions elsewhere in the world, such as America. Small rickshaws could be great solutions for local grocery delivery or same-day product deliveries in cities. Maybe it's time to call up Tuk Tuk North America.
For more information on these electric fleets, visit Amazon's blog.
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