Sunita Somvanshi
Electric bus market of India has reported growth of 84% at 3,708 units, up from 2,008 units from FY23 to FY24. A milestone has been achieved by Olectra Greentech LTD, a leading manufacturer of electric buses by surpassing 10,000 units on its e-bus order book. Thus it becomes the first e-bus OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) in the country to achieve this landmark.
Highlighting the promising future of bus electrification in India, the company has successfully extended the cooperation agreement with BYD, the Chinese EV major that now rivals Elon Musk’s Tesla, till December, 2030. Olectra continued to secure orders from State Transport Undertakings transitioning to battery-powerless buses in FY24. With 507 buses delivered in FY (Financial Year) 24, their electric order book reached 10,969 units, as of March 31, 2024.
The company management indicated during the Q (Quarter) 4 FY24 earnings call, “Olectra has homologated and completed AIS 038 certification for all the e-bus model’s batteries.” The company secured what it calls the ‘world’s largest e-bus order of 5,150 units’ from MSRTC (The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation), during the last fiscal. An order to supply 3,000 electric buses from BEST (The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport) has also been bagged by the company.
Olectra has delivered 1,695 electric buses and 51 tippers, as of March 31, 2024. Supported by the new capacity that is likely to come on stream during the year, the company expects to deliver more than 2,000 electric buses in this fiscal.
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A new greenfield factory over a 150-acre site is being set up at Seetharampur near Hyderabad, Telangana by the ₹1,154 crore company. Sharad Chandra, Chief Financial Officer of the company said that the construction work of the new state-of-the-art plant is in full swing. He added that partial production from the facility is expected to commence this month. Funded through a term loan of ₹500 crore and the remaining ₹200 crore via internal accruals, the estimated investment in the new facility is ₹700 plus crore. The capacity of the new facility is expected to reach 5,000 units by the end of this fiscal.
About 10,000 units will be produced next year. Tata Motors, JBM Auto, Olectra Greentech, PMI Electro Mobility, and Mytrah Mobility were the leading players during the last fiscal. Electrification in the public transportation segment is being pushed hard by the Central Government. The Government plans to come out with some policy guidelines to drive the electrification of public transport, though the share of conversion is very low now.
A programme is being worked out to replace around 8 lakh diesel buses. That is one third of the total buses plying on roads, with battery-powered ones by 2030. In short, Olectra renews collaboration with BYD till 2030, to get more electric buses, mainly for state public transport systems. It is a step in the right direction for a better ecological balance.
