THE SWITCH TO e-LCVS

Switch Mobility forayed into e-LCVs as hinted at earlier. Ashish Bhatia looks at the tweaks to the modular architecture for the new launch driving the green mobility strategy, afresh.

Switch Mobility was aptly stationed alongside the Ashok Leyland booth at the Auto Expo 2023 The Motor Show. The company, as hinted earlier during its electric bus launches in 2022, came good on the time line of its intended electric Light Commercial Vehicles e-LCV) foray. The e-LCV segment is the other priority segment after electric buses for Switch. Having given a sneak peek at the work underway on previous occasions, the power train modularities for e-LCVs fructified. The Switch ion platform also underpins the bus range, from the Switch EiV 9 Standard to the ultra-low

floor Switch EiV 12 up to the double-decker Switch EiV 22, most recently in the news for deliveries in India to STUs BEST in Maharashtra and BMTC in Bengaluru besides the G20 run. The products have also entered Chandigarh, Patna and Ahmedabad.

Drawing on its Ashok Leyland and Optare DNA, the LCV foray is a testimony to the flexibility and the go-to-market agility at our disposal, and an outcome of a journey that began a decade ago, averred Dheeraj Hinduja, Executive Chairman at the company. He said, It is when we positioned an all-electric bus in the UK a decade ago when the industry, globally, was uncertain about the future of electric vehicles” We are fortunate to have Optare in the UK with the proven track record in electric vehicles and Ashok Leyland with its rich market presence, brand equity and above all the rich history of product introductions,” he expressed.