Hero Electric deploys 100 EVs for Shadowfax delivery partners

Electric two-wheeler maker Hero Electric on Friday flagged off its first batch of 100 e-scooters out of the 1,000 to the delivery partners of Shadowfax, a third-party last-mile logistics platform.

“Currently, about 50% of our delivery partners use either bicycles or electric vehicles (EV),” said Shadowfax co-founder and chief operating officer Praharsh Chandra. The company further plans to convert 75% of its fleet to EVs by 2025.

With more state governments coming out with respective EV policies, Hero Electric is betting big on forging more such partnerships in the delivery segment to achieve zero emissions in last-mile logistics.

“At Hero, we strive to provide 360-degree solutions to our B2B customers through our strong network presence across India,” said Hero Electric chief executive officer Sohinder Gill.

The world’s fourth largest automobile market has witnessed a surge in the number of such partnerships forged by the EV manufacturers with delivery and aggregator platforms to electrify the latter’s fleets.

These partnerships have received a further boost by way of policy mandates. Recently, the Delhi state government’s draft aggregator policy mandated transition to an all-electric fleet for cab companies, food delivery firms and e-commerce entities by April 1, 2030, and proposed a fine of Rs 50,000 per vehicle if a company failed to do the same.

“The economics of an EV has changed quite a lot over the last three to four years. Along with the government policies and the changes in the designs of the vehicles, it has become much more economical to actually use them,” said Chandra.