IT giant, Wipro has entered into a strategic partnership with the electric mobility start-up, Lithium Urban Technologies to convert 35 per cent of its transportation used by the employees to electric in the next 18 months. The Bengaluru-based company said it expects its EV fleet to cover a distance of four million kilometres by 2021.
Lithium, which was founded by Sanjay Krishnan and Ashwin Mahesh in 2014, had deployed EV’s in Wipro’s Hyderabad campus in 2018 covering a cumulative distance of 4 million kms, thus saving 800 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emmisions.
“Premji recently spoke about profit in sustainability, and that to any organization, apart from social consciousness, profit is the biggest motivator towards sustainability, that they generate from lower carbon emissions. We are indeed privileged to be a part of this journey at Wipro for the last 18 months. This journey which started in Hyderabad is now being expanded nationally, backed by proven results. We aim to deliver results in terms of cost savings and carbon footprint reduction,”Sanjay Krishnan, co-founder and CEO, Lithium Urban Technologies, said.
Wipro said the decision to commit for EVs was natural since it involved public health benefits — cleaner air in cities as well as mitigating carbon emissions. “As a part of Wipro’s commitment to ecological sustainability, we are continuously involved in multiple environment-related programs both within and outside our business boundaries.
Lithium was our obvious choice as Wipro has greatly benefitted from its partnership with the company ever since our successful collaboration last year to transition our vehicle fleet to electric vehicles in Hyderabad,”Nittan Bhalla, general manager and head – Facilities Management & Operations at Wipro said.
Lithium currently owns the largest fleet of EVs in the world outside China. It is backed by investors including LGT Capital and International Finance Corporation, which is an arm of the World Bank.