Switch Mobility India Could Explore Smaller Electric Buses For India

Switch Mobility recently launched its second electric bus for the Indian market, the country’s first all-electric double-decker EiV 22. The new double-decker has already received an order of 200 units from Mumbai’s BEST while its single-decker, the EiV 12 recently received an order of 5,000 units from transport technology company Chalo. While the company says that the primary focus is on its current pair of buses it has not ruled out the development of smaller models for the market.

Speaking to carandbike, Switch Mobility India CEO, Mahesh Babu said, “The buses have multiple applications, we can’t be going and jumping in and taking out all the applications and spending our energy. So our intention was to first get into city buses which are 12 metres. EVs are more of a city phenomenon or a local phenomenon because it needs charging infrastructure and all that so we are focusing on double-decker. There are a lot of enquiries coming on a low floor bus for which EiV 12 had both a low floor and semi-low floor bus so that will go into production.”

Switch Mobility recently launched its new electric double-decker bus with first units set to be delivered from early next year.

“There are enquiries coming on a smaller footprint like they want 7-metre bus, metro feeder services. So we will look at that. But everything has to make economic sense. Just for the sake of it we don’t go and make a product and be present there,” he added.

To put into perspective, Switch’s first bus for India, the EiV 12 sits in the 12-metre category while the double-decker is a shade under 10 metres long.

“Switch is very, very clear that any contract that we take or any investment we do is properly, thoroughly studied, understood, it is scalable, and it is profitable. We will get into that. So we will evaluate all the markets we said but we will decide based on the criteria,” Babu said.

Electric bus uptake by state and city transport corporation have been on the rise in recent years with multiple orders being placed under the CESL tender. The Delhi Transport Corporation in May inducted 150 new electric buses with an order for a further 1,500 placed in July. Bhubaneshwar too recently added electric buses to its city bus fleet while Mumbai’s BEST too has been adding electric buses to its fleet.