‘Switch Mobility aims to be in EV markets worldwide’

Switch Mobility expects the market for electric buses to double next year, says MAHESH BABU, chief executive officer, India, and chief operating officer of the start-up owned by Ashok Leyland. The big advantage” for the company is its synergy with Ashok Leyland, he tells Shine Jacob.

- MAHESH BABU

What is the role of Switch Mobility in Ashok Leyland's journey towards electric vehicles (EVS)?

Firstly, Switch is positioned as a global company. We are headquartered in UK, we have offices in Chennai, Spain and several other locations. Switch has a vision of democratising zero-carbon mobility. Our intention is to bring, globally, people to public transport in electric mobility. These two areas we will do in the passenger as well as in the goods segment. We have taken two segments: bus and also light commercial vehicles (LCVS) up to 7.5 tonnes. Switch will be looking at electrification across the globe including the UK, Spain, West Asia, South East Asia, India, Africa and other countries, where we want to participate in these two segments.

Switch Mobil Switch, being a subsidiary of Ashok Leyland, will have a lot of synergies and support from the company, the platform, manufacturing channel and many more. That is the big advantage for us, while we are a start-up 20 months old, we have leveraged Ashok Leyland assets significantly in the past two years. We are trying to get the maximum asset utilisation to bring the best products to our customers.

How many buses did you supply in the Indian market so far and how do you see the growth potential?

We had about 100 buses at the start of the year, supplied in the last four years. There are two portions to it, one is the India portion and another is the UK portion. We have around 100 electric buses running in the UK as well. We kicked off in India last October. When we made Switch, we had around 65 buses on the road and we were delivering the first 40 last financial year taking around 105 buses on the road.