Indian Air Force inducts 12 Tata Nexon electric vehicles in its fleet

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has added a batch of Tata Nexon electric vehicles to its fleet in order to reduce carbon emissions, keeping up the government's initiative on introduction of green mobility. Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari flagged off the first batch of 12 electric vehicles to be inducted in the IAF fleet in the presence of other senior officers and staff.

The force is planning to gradually increase the usage of electric vehicles in its fleet in a progressive manner by replacing the downgraded conventional vehicles. IAF is also planning augmentation of the e-vehicles ecosystem at various Force bases, including installation of charging infrastructure. "The first batch of electric cars introduced today will be deployed in Delhi NCR units for performance monitoring and analysis," the IAF said.

The IAF has also joined hands with the Indian Army for the ongoing procurement of electric buses and electric cars to create a standardised inventory of vehicles. It said these proactive measures reaffirms IAF's commitment to the national objective of transformation towards environment-friendly mobility.

In a separate development, the Airports Authority of India (AAI), which manages a total of 137 airports, has also said that it is working towards switching to electric vehicles (EVs) and is encouraging the airport service providers for inducting EVs and developing charging infrastructure at airports. The move is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of transitioning towards electric mobility. The institution aims to achieve 100 per cent target for switching over to electric vehicles by 2030.

AAI has initially inducted 10 electric vehicles for official use at its corporate and regional headquarters in New Delhi while a total of 45 e-vehicles had been engaged at AAI airports' offices across the country through direct purchase from original equipment manufacturers/hiring for airside operations' city-side usage.