Ashok Leyland arm rolls out commercial EVs
The company said these vehicles have interoperability with existing charging infrastructure of cars and could be charged completely in an hour in fast charging.
CHENNAI: Switch Mobility forays into the electric commercial vehicle segment with the launch of two models — IeV 3 and IeV 4 — with a payload of 1.2 to 1.7 tonne and a range of up to 300 km on a single day. These vehicles come with a 330V high voltage system and have a battery pack ranging from 25.6 to 32.2 kWh.
The company said these vehicles have interoperability with existing charging infrastructure of cars and could be charged completely in an hour in fast charging. The cargo body can extend up to 9.7 feet.
The launch of the IeV series on Thursday also marks Ashok Leyland, its parent company’s 75th anniversary.
Switch mobility expects business-to-business (B2B) customers will propel sale of electric commercial vehicles in the initial days as large corporations pledge to de-carbonisation their operations. The focus will be on e-commerce companies, MSMEs, municipal applications for last and mid-mile transportation. It has signed a memorandum of understanding for sale of 13,000 vehicles with e-commerce and logistics players like Amazon, Flipkart, Gati, Trasworld, among others and aims to deliver them in 12- 18 months.
Speaking to this newspaper ahead of the launch, Mahesh Babu, chief executive of Switch Mobility, said the focus is on domestic market and neighbouring countries and later expand to African, South East Asian, South American markets. “We expect the sale of electric light commercial vehicles to grow 10X in the current year and a 45%- 60% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) in the segment for the next ten years.
The sale of electric LCVs in the country are currently insignificant, setting the low base. He said Switch has struck partnerships with banks and NBFCs to finance the vehicles as well. The vehicles are manufactured at Leyland’s Hosur facility with a capacity of 3,000 vehicles with about 60- 70% localisation of components.
Mahesh Babu stressed that demand side incentives are necessary in the adoption of emerging technologies and expects FAME-III to support the LCV segment. Meanwhile Ashok Leyland Chairperson Dheeraj Hinduja said despite the focus on electric vehicles, diesel still has quite a long way to go. “We need to take into account the economic aspects and the cost factors when we look at alternate fuel,” the Chairman said refuting claims that Ashok Leyland would only focus on electric vehicles,” he said responding to a question.
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