Grofers aims to cut costs with electric vehicles, will deploy 500 EVs by December

• Grocery retail startup Grofers has announced that it aims to have 500 EVs deployed on Indian roads by December.
• It is also a part of electric vehicle freight project called Deliver Electric Delhi by the Delhi government.
• Grofers was in the news in May when it raised over $200 million from Softbank Vision Fund.

Indian grocery delivery startup Grofers is the latest to adopt electric vehicles. The startup announced that its pilots have been successful where its delivery costs went down by 50%. Now, it plans to expand and take it to 500 EVs by December.

Grofers is already using EVs in Delhi and Jaipur. It is also a part of electric vehicle freight project called Deliver Electric Delhi by the Delhi government.

The startup joins the league of Zomato, Swiggy, Flipkart and others, who have declared their plans to switch to EVs for delivery.

Swiggy too is piloting the use of Electric Vehicles for its deliveries across 10 cities. It said that the EV adoption can reduce running costs by 40%.

Over the last two years, Grofers’ has grown by a staggering 800%, to achieve an annual revenue of $400 million. Deploying EVs could help cut costs further.

The grocery retail startup raised over $200 million in May, from Softbank Vision Fund. With this funding, its reported valuation is set to be almost $1 billion – just a few steps away from being a unicorn. The series F round also saw participation from new investor, KTB, and along with existing investors – Tiger Global Management and Sequoia Capital.

It competitor BigBasket is already a unicorn.