Switch Mobility mulls ‘green’ plant to make e-buses

The vehicles have an indigenisation level of 60%

Switch Mobility Ltd. (Switch), the electric vehicle arm of Ashok Leyland, is planning to set up a greenfield project to make electric buses at an investment of about ₹1,000 crore, said a top official.

“Currently, we are evaluating different sites to make e-buses,” said Mahesh Babu, director & CEO, Switch Mobility India in an interview. “The new plant would come up in the vicinity of Ashok Leyland’s existing facility.”

Stating they were preparing multiple blueprints based on the EV policies of different states, he said that a final decision would be taken in the next four to six weeks.

Switch would invest about ₹1,000 crore in the new facility, which would have an initial production capacity of 2,500 buses per annum. It would be doubled based on demand.

On Tuesday, Switch in the presence of its chairman Dheeraj Hinduja rolled out its maiden electric bus ‘Switch EiV 12’ for the Indian market. These buses are currently manufactured at ALL's Ennore facility.

"Right now, Switch has an order book of 600 e-buses. The first 50 buses will be delivered to Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) by the month end," said Mr. Hinduja.

Out of the 600 buses, 300 are meant for BMTC, 200 double deck buses for Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking and 100 for employees/staff transport. Besides, it is also actively working on developing luxury buses for STCs.