Ashok Leyland & Sun Mobility To Make Electric Buses in India

The iconic bus maker is set to reinvent itself with electric buses for the future.

Ashok Leyland is set to work on transportation that will run on electric batteries. 

(Photo Courtesy: BloombergQuint)

Ashok Leyland and Sun Mobility on Tuesday have entered into a strategic alliance to develop electric buses, said officials of the two companies here on Tuesday.

The Bengaluru-based Sun Mobility is an equal joint venture between Virya Mobility 5.0 and Sun New Energy Systems.

Sun Mobility is led by Chetan Maini who delivered Reva car in Indian market, which was later sold to Mahindra and Mahindra group.

Declining to comment on the investments Sun Mobility would have to make for the tie up with Ashok Leyland, Maini said his company would set up the infrastructure – battery charging and swapping stations among other things.

Ashok Leyland has already designed its electric bus which was showcased by the Chennai-based manufacturer last year. Sun Mobility will be responsible for setting up the charging stations at bus depots, just the way Tesla will be setting up shop to charge its Model 3.

We have entered into a strategic alliance to develop electric buses with ‘swap and charge’ battery technology. We have to decide on firming up the agreement into a joint venture.

Vinod K Dasari, CEO and Managing Director, Ashok Leyland

The private officials said the solution that is being developed is to replace a battery that got discharged with a fully charged one so that a vehicle is always on the move.