Switch Mobility to meet growing e-bus demand with fresh capex

Oncourse for abillion-dollar business, the company is exploringa possibility of operating satellite factories across the country to serve different geographies, write ShahkarAbidi and Ketan Thakkar.

India's demand for clean public transportation is leading to huge orders for electric bus makers. Buoyed by an increased order book of over 2,500 buses, Switch Mobility, the electric vehicle arm of Ashok Leyland plans to set up multiple factories in the country. It is currently engaged. in talks with Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh governments to set up new plants. This is in addition to building vehicles at its factories in Tamil Nadu.

Details of the business plan was shared by Mahesh Babu, CEO of Switch Mobility who said the e-mobility company was exploring a possibility of operating satellite factories across the country to serve the different geographies with smaller capacities instead of a large facility producing 10,000 to 15,000 buses.

Babu told Autocar Professional that the company is looking at multiple asset utilisation within the group. This means that it will use Ashok Leyland's existing bus and LCV: up and at the same time explore possible new production sites in states like Maharashtra, UP and Rajasthan among others. Babu spoke on the side-lines of AutoExpo 2023 where his company unveiled a range of concepts for e-LCVs and e-buses for Indian and global markets in the leV and EiV series respectively.