Industrial Automation Magazine India

DARWYN to supply E-scooters for Vaccine Last Mile Delivery

Published on : Saturday 09-01-2021

Delivering the first Production lot in late March, will be a boon for Anganvaadi workers vaccinating smaller towns and cities in India.

Ahmedabad, January 8, 2021 – DARWYN is all set to stir some more excitement amongst healthcare professionals and mobility enthusiasts this month. Commencing 2021, the DARWYN scooters that have been doing duty for grocery and essential deliveries during lockdown has extended their scope to delivering the vaccine through the toughest part of the journey, its last mile. India has a cold chain problem and one of the biggest questions raised by experts on India's healthcare system is will we be able to vaccinate those without the best access to healthcare. Their scooter completed testing of 20,000 km with dummy vaccine vials to test for breakage and its ability to maintain storage at the optimum temperature for shipping the vaccine.

DARWYN plans to make the vehicles available in Indian cities like Bangalore, Pune, Lucknow, Goa, Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bhopal, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Nainital and Nagpur in phase 1 ending April 2021. And in tier 2 & 3 cities by August 2021 followed by the required service in over 24 cities to keep the vehicles running in optimum condition till the vaccination drive ends.

Ever since the vehicle has been seen testing curiosity amongst people seeing it on the road led to a tremendously positive and curious response from onlookers with videos of the vehicle testing going viral online. The vehicles come with ardent reliability and a full metal body reducing the chances of failure and breakage. The vehicle and batteries are Made in India with DARWYN becoming the first Indian startup to achieve 84% localisation by number of parts and making a truly Made in India electric vehicle.

Speaking about the announcement, Rahul Gonsalves, founder & CEO, DARWYN, said, “India’s logistics supply chain has been broken and the pandemic has shown proof that the healthcare system is no better, we have been focussed on helping businesses electrify their fleet and in the process our fleet has completed a cumulative 200,000 km on road. We are confident our product will help reduce the time of the immunisation drive by 30% and reduce costs by 60-70% for last mile deliveries of the vaccine.”

This DARWYN Scooter can be charged on any wall socket in 45 minutes and has been manufactured keeping in sync robust reliability and utility and has been largely adopted across food delivery, eCommerce, medicine delivery and courier industries. The Vehicle is powered by a hub motor and a Fast charge capable fully Made in India battery. The company has setup its manufacturing facility in Ahmedabad, Gujarat and has allocated 40% of the capacity to the immunisation drive in spite of pressure from commercial clients to scale deliveries.