Shadowfax Tech targets 75% of its fleet in EVs by 2024; full electrification by 2026

PTI, Feb 22, 2022, 11:48 AM IST

Shadowfax Technologies, a crowdsourced platform for last-mile deliveries, on Monday said it aims to have 75 percent of its fleet in electric vehicles by 2024 and full electrification by 2026 as part of its long-term growth goals. This adoption of EVs is part of a global effort to make logistics more sustainable with the zero pollution campaign.

By introducing this initiative, Shadowfax seeks to transform the industry and introduce a proactive measure to reduce carbon emissions, bringing a new approach to the last-mile logistics space that is environment-friendly, the company said in a statement.

The commercial EV market is growing with various aspects, including the availability of vehicles, corporate net-zero responsibilities, and carbon pricing providing the additional impetus for substantial growth of electrification of last-mile delivery fleets in India, according to the statement.

Despite its many advantages, the electric vehicles (EV) space currently faces a lot of challenges – be it the limited support in the form of loans from financial institutions for EVs, the still-developing charging infrastructure, or lack of trusted cost-effective original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

Shadowfax is holistically trying to solve all challenges in the EV space by involving strategic partnerships to enable seamless adoption. The network-level traction witnessed so far is promising and beneficial for all stakeholders, it added.

The company said it has with its IP technologies built a platform that is unique and sustainable as it is optimized for various parameters such as vehicle speeds, customer expectations, willingness, and ability to pay.

It is leading the two-wheeler market adoption of zero-carbon emission means of last-mile with 30 percent daily active users of its over one-lakh strong crowdsourced platform using cycles, EVs, and other eco-friendly means, the company said.

“We are thrilled with the expansion of our EV fleet. With the EV and e-store initiatives, our target on first-time users and new categories like women partners would be fast-tracked,” Shadowfax Technologies co-founder and CEO Abhishek Bansal said.

According to Bansal, Shadowfax is also participating in the NITI Aayog project, ‘Shoonya- Zero Pollution Mobility’, which is relentlessly driving the EV agenda.

“Being an asset-light platform, we have taken an extensive aggregator-centric approach, where we provide matchmaking between vehicle owners, OEMs, rental models, and delivery partners.

“Since the launch of these services on our e-store, we have seen tremendous interest coming from partners. More than 50 lenders, OEMs, and vehicle owners have already registered before the official launch of the e-store on our app,” Ankit Kala, vice-president (operations and strategy) of Shadowfax Technologies, said.

The on-demand tech-enabled instant logistics B2B2C platform caters to multiple end-customer categories, including food and grocery delivery, quick commerce, multi-city e-commerce fulfillment, and reverse logistics via a single platform.

With a growing base of over one lakh rider partners, Shadowfax serves over 170 enterprise clients across over 700 cities, delivering over one million orders every day, according to the statement.