IKEA will run all deliveries in India on EVs by 2025

Swedish furniture major, IKEA, will run all deliveries in India on EVs by 2025. The company said that while its delivery operations in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune are powered by electric vehicles, deliveries in Mumbai would follow suit.

When IKEA begins operations in Delhi-NCR next year, the market will be the first for the company to see an ‘EV-first’ approach to running deliveries.

As of date, IKEA has deployed hundreds of EVs across seven cities in India.

The company said that as of July, these EVs have helped achieve over 90% of zero-emission deliveries to customers’ homes. With the Delhi-NCR market set to join the company’s presence in India next year, IKEA projects a 40% growth in its EV fleet by then.

IKEA’s 2025 EV goal was born out of the company’s participation in the Climate Group’s Global EV100 initiative, which hopes to bring companies committed to switching their owned and contracted fleets to electric vehicles, under one roof.

In line with these plans, IKEA India has been facilitating partnerships between last-mile delivery partners and OEMs, to pivot to 100% EV deliveries across markets.

The company’s deliveries are run on EVs like the Tata Ace EV and models built by OEMs like Ashok Leyland`s Switch Mobility and EKA, which feature in IKEA’s EV portfolio.

An understandably limited EV ecosystem meant that IKEA India even began retrofitting diesel trucks to make them EVs while migrating to L4 and L6 EVs, which are light commercial vehicles.

Then there’s the challenge of charging point availability. As part of the EV100 initiative, IKEA India will build charging stations at its stores for customers and its delivery vehicles.