Prince William to announce electric tuk tuks as finalists for his Earthshot prize: Makers of eco-powered autorickshaws could win £1million
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By ED HOLT
Published: | Updated:
Prince William is set to announce the manufacturers of electric tuk tuks as the first finalists for his Earthshot prize.
Mahindra, India's largest makers of electric autorickshaws, are one of 15 finalists shortlisted for the Prince of Wales' Earthshot prize with the rest set to be announced next Friday.
The five winners are set to be announced in Mumbai in November and will each receive £1million.
Tuk tuks are a familiar sight across Asia, with an estimated ten million on the streets of India alone, due to their cheap running costs and nippy ability to navigate crowded cities.
They are also notoriously bad for air quality in densely populated areas due to the high level of smog the tiny vehicles produce.
However that could all be about to change with the rollout of new electric tuk tuks, which are powered by a battery under the seat. They are taking India by storm with 68 per cent of new three-wheelers sold in the country being electric.
And Prince William wants to recognise the work of Mahindra by announcing them as the first finalist for his Earthshot prize whose mission is to 'find, celebrate and scale solutions to repair the planet'.
Wills, who himself drives an electric Audi, went as far as to say the manufacturers are a 'great example' of everything that Earthshot is about.
Prince William has announced Mahindra as one of the 15 finalist for his Earthshot prize
A Mahindra electric tuk tuk. The company have already put 400,000 vehicles on the roads of India but has set the ambitious target of putting one million vehicles on the road by 2031
He told The Times: '[Mahindra] offered a great example of what the Earthshot prize is all about, a practical solution that is already working at scale and changing the way people move around their cities.
'Seeing solutions like this growing in India gives me real optimism.'
Mahindra has already put 400,000 vehicles on the road but has set the ambitious target of putting one million vehicles on the road by 2031 while also expanding globally.
The company has already exported EVs to Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Philippines and is already eyeing up expansion into Indonesia and as far afield as Brazil and Africa.
Suman Mishra, 48, chief executive of Mahindra Last Mile Mobility, said: 'You don't have to have a very expensive, sophisticated solution to push sustainability. When the right choice for the climate is also the right economic choice for the customer then scale is inevitable.'
Mahindra has also touted the environmental benefits of switching to electric autorickshaws with the company calculating they have already prevented 180,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, the equivalent of planting 8.3 million trees.
Long-term economist and energy expert Kaushik Deb has said that if millions of tuk tuk drivers went green it could trigger a global downturn in demand for petrol.
Earthshot had initially focused on recognising start-ups and charities, but Mahindra is a very different company - founded in 1945 and ranked as the 15th most valuable vehicle maker worldwide, worth about £29billion.
Jason Knauf, chief executive of Earthshot, praised corporations like Mahindra as crucial to environmental progress.
He added that India is at the forefront of the fight to tackle climate change and where the biggest difference is going to be made for climate and nature.
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