Over the past decade, India has seen tremendous growth in urbanization, e-commerce activity, and first and last mile delivery requirements. Road freight emissions currently account for the majority of India’s total transport emissions. Alarmingly, by 2050, these emissions are set to grow by 451% from 2020 levels – making road freight one of the highest-impact areas for reducing transport emissions – which is pivotal in achieving India’s ambitious decarbonization targets. With an incremental dependence on oil and energy, the electrification of commercial road freight has become a necessary step to combat the adverse environmental impact of increased economic activity.

Acknowledging the critical role of road freight electrification in India’s decarbonization journey, WRI India has been undertaking comprehensive research on its rapidly evolving domestic ecosystem – analyzing both the supply and demand sides. We have been tracking the key stakeholders of the value chain like battery solutions and charging infrastructure providers, original equipment manufacturers, Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) and logistic companies, and more.

To highlight the urgent need for freight electrification and deliberate on our key research findings, WRI India is organizing an event “Decarbonizing India's Road Freight - Towards a cleaner, greener, and electric future of commercial vehicles” on June 30, 2022 (9:30 am to 1.30 pm). The event will offer a platform for dialogue to a range of industry stakeholders, including legacy players and startups, financing experts, leaders from various logistics companies and government representatives.

Through five deep-dive sessions, the event will shed light on the following:

• The role of policies and regulations in accelerating the transition of road freight with a focus on mobility and logistic operators.
• Viable approaches for electrification of fleets – with a focus on the financial and business models.
• The role of technology in developing a wide range of decarbonization strategies for the sector.
• Identification of specific use-cases to deploy pilots that showcase the viability of electric freight vehicles in Indian conditions.

SPEAKERS

• NV Prasad - Principal Secretary, Transport Government of Karnataka
• Manjula Vinjamuri – Commissioner of Directorate of Urban Land Transport
• Nakul Kukar - Co-Founder & CEO, Cell Propulsions Pvt Ltd
• Supratim Naskar – Co- founder and Chief Technology Officer, Cell Propulsions Pvt Ltd
• Dev Arora - Co-Founder & CEO, Alt Mobility
• Amithabh Saran - Founder & CEO, Altigreen
• Vikrant Vaidya - Partner & Lead - EV Systems Engineering, Manifold
• Raghavendra Mysore - Co-Founder, MOOEV Technologies
• Vasudha Madhavan – Founder, Ostara Advisors
• Nagakishore - Lightning Logistics, LLC
• Daryl Dias – Co-founder & Director of Operations, Magenta Mobility
• Rohit Saily - Head- Business Development- Electric Mobility, Magenta Mobility
• Jayant Gupta – CEO, Grevol
• Satish Lakkaraju - Senior Vice President, WIZ Transport
• Murugan M - Regional Manager, Land Transport South India, DB Schenker
• Pranav Goel - Co-Founder & CEO, Porter
• Pawan Mulukutla – Director, Clean Mobility and Energy Tech, WRI India
• Rohan Rao – Program Manager, Electric Mobility, WRI India
• Krithi Venkat – Program Manager, Electric Mobility, WRI India