Amazon, Flipkart Want To Use Electric Vehicles in India. Except...

Cheaper running costs, plus the opportunity to burnish their green credentials in India's polluted and noisy cities, also make EVs an attractive option.

Sourabh Saini, a delivery driver for Indian online supermarket BigBasket, is thrilled by the attention he gets as he zips around Noida, a satellite city on the outskirts of Delhi, in his three-wheeled electric van. "I like how my electric van always gets noticed," said Saini, who made the switch from fossil fuels about eight months ago as part of BigBasket's push to electrify 90% of its fleet. "Customers are surprised at how silent it is. They get curious about my experience of driving an EV and start asking about its price and range." That makes him somewhat of a novelty in India, where BigBasket and online giants Amazon.com Inc. and Flipkart -- who could hold the key to getting more gas-guzzlers off India's roads -- are struggling to source enough vehicles to meet ambitious targets to electrify their delivery fleets. "It's not plug and play," said Mahesh Pratap Singh, head of sustainability and responsibility at Flipkart. "When we scanned the landscape there wasn't much from a supply and reliability perspective, or a viable commercial option out there. That led us to believe you've got to put one big bold ambition out there and really nudge the entire ecosystem and shape it, rather than just being a consumer."